Random Thought Inspired by a Tweet

I consider myself to be an expert people watcher...and my people watching experience has taught me that most people WILL NOT do the right thing when they think no one is watching.  Ultimately, we are very ego driven....more motivated to do things when there's something in it for us.  I've tested my theory many times by simply paying someone a compliment.  Many people look around to see if I'm really talking to them...some tell me 'I don't have any money'....some actually think I'm making fun of them.  It's sad that so many of us can't even take a compliment.

There was this guy that I had the biggest crush on a couple years ago.  I told him that I was attracted to him and wanted to spend time with him outside of work (yes, we worked together)....and I didn't tell him in "Womanese"...I told him straight up 'I like you and I want to spend time with you outside of work'.  He thought I was kidding.  Eventually he realized I was serious and it went from him thinking I was messing with his head to him putting himself down whenever we talked because he genuinely could not figure out why I would be interested in him...even though I told him many times.

It makes me sad that we are so quick to criticize each other but ridiculously slow to share praise and love.  Something I learned during my 31 Day Reset and watching Oprah's Life Class is that ultimately what we think of ourselves is our responsibility but getting to the point where we feel good about ourselves comes from affirmation that we get from others.  This is something that should have taken place when we were being raised, but all of us don't get that.  I never knew why I felt an uncontrollable urge to tell people good things about themselves until the 31 Day Reset/Oprah's Life Class.  I can remember being a teen and giving random compliments.  Even my friends thought I was making fun of people and not being genuine.  I do it because it's the right thing to do.  I do it because it feels so good inside to make others feel good.  You never know what people are really thinking or going through, a lot of us are conditioned to keep the truth to ourselves and tell people what they want to hear.  Some of us want to hear the truth, not the fluff that we were taught to give.  You never know how a simple word of kindness can totally turn someone's day or even life, around.

Before I made this post, I was in a bad mood.  I spent the week up in NYC with my family (Dad's side) having the time of my life.  I left early this morning to come back home to VA.  I strongly dislike living in VA....and it's been that way since I was a kid. After my parents divorced, my mother decided she needed a change and that VA was the place for her change to happen.  About an hour into the drive home, my son called me.  He stayed the night in Alexandria and someone broke both windows out of his car (he drives a coupe) and stole his radio.  I made sure he called the police and his insurance company, then continued driving.  About 30 minutes later, Stanlee (my Yorkie) starts whining, NOW he wants to go pee.  He couldn't do it when I walked him BEFORE we got on the road, he has to do it NOW.  I get off the highway to find a place for Stan to pee and he won't go!  I make the most of my "wasted" stop and put gas in my car. I gave Stan one more chance to pee, thank goodness he did this time.  I get back on the road and make it back to VA.  I get home and there are random lights on in my house.  Damn landlord is snooping around my house again.  He keeps saying he never comes in the house, but I keep finding things out of place and random lights on.  He's the only one with a key besides me.  He still uses my mailbox to get his mail and comes by every month and a half or so to get his mail.  It HAS to be him coming in here. I got something for his behind...I ordered a wireless home monitoring system that allows me to see what's going on inside my house from anywhere that I have internet access.  Verizon delivered it and it was sitting on my porch when I pulled up in front of my house!

Since I couldn't find my "happy space" and kept focusing on what's wrong, I decided to take a nap.  Before I went down for my nap, I noticed my blackberry was flashing red.  I checked it.  It was a tweet from a new follower.  She wanted me to know that she's following me and that she read my blog and "gets me". Very short and simple message but that's all I needed to 'snap out of it' and get back to my happy space.  Now all the things I was so ticked about earlier seem trivial (except living in VA lol).

Anyway, I would like to see everyone be kind to people just because they're fellow human beings.  Anybody can be a jackass and say something hurtful.  Challenge yourself.  Do something different.  Be a stand up kind of person and say or do something nice instead.