Crazy People Exercise and November 11th

Finding 5 good things about someone who drives you crazy!

So here I thought this would be an easy exercise! But it is proving difficult, but not for the reason I thought. I thought it would be that I couldn't find the good in these people but it has turned into I always find the good in people so I am having a hard time picking someone who I need to do this with. It is amazing how something I had to work so hard to accomplish at one time has become a habit!

There is one person in my life that I do butt heads with, so to speak, and it is a person that I cannot rid myself of. I am not going to mention any names but it is a relative and he is a very difficult person to deal with, so I chose him as my subject in this exercise. He is very confrontational and has very little positive to say, so he is a challenge for me to be around. I have learned from him a few things, more about myself than about him. I have learned how to deal better with difficult people, I have learned to be more patient, I have learned how to let ignorant comments go and not have to counter-attack every situation. But I think the most important one is to try to find something in common with him and converse with him about that instead of starting an argument because we do not see eye to eye on just about everything.

I have also learned that it takes all kinds of people to make up a world and if we were all the same, what a boring world it would be! He and I have 2 completely different value systems and that is always a challenge. But as I said he is one of those people in your life you cannot get rid of.

Which leads me to my next topic. Cultural diversity! I love that I live in Canada! I love that we are rich with so many people from so many backgrounds!!! How fantastic is it that all these people can live in one country and live as peacefully as humans can! I love talking to people and finding out about their cultures. And in all that I have noticed that for most everything, humans have the same outlook on life in general they are just presented with different covers and in different ways but the message is still the same.

I truly believe, deep down to my gut, that most of our problems in the world are from lack of knowledge. And not the ABC's and 123's knowledge but lack of understanding what our fellow man is dealing with and who and what they are. We seem to fear what we don't understand and we don't deal with what we fear. And because of this we act out in violent and confrontational ways.

I am not going to like you because of the color of your skin, I don't like you because you have a different religion that me, I don't like you because you ...

What a shame that our intelligent species has become so ignorant. What a loss people with this mind set are experiencing. I have met so many interesting people and learned so much of myself just be talking to people and asking questions! As I sit here the night before Remembrance Day and feeling so lucky to be a Canadian and appreciating all that our soldiers have endured so I can sit here in my house, with my husband with very little fear in my heart and a smile on my face and stating my opinion on the World Wide Web!!! How lucky I am to be in a part of the world with such wonderful people! And it breaks my heart when I hear about hate crimes, and people taking advantage of all the privileges that we would not have without these men and women who loved their country and it's values so much that they were willing to be apart from their families, enduring terrible circumstances, experiencing things we only experience in movies, watching comrades fall, and some not coming home just for some selfish jerk to take advantage of!!!

I would just like to say to our veterans, our troops, and our fallen heroes that this girl, in this living room, in this great country of Canada appreciates what you have done and I will remember always and not just November 11th what you have done for me!

THANK YOU!

Please go out and do one good thing for one person everyday this week! Just Because!

My World Has Changed

Since I started this page I have had a life ambition of trying to inspire young women to learn to respect themselves!!! Who they are, how they look, what they do and be the best person they can be. After many failed attempts at trying different things I have come to the conclusion that the best way to accomplish this is the share my stories!! Share my thoughts and open up some discussions!

So today will be the first post of the new Pink Stockings!

One thing I have learned in order to accept myself is to stop judging others. Stop fearing what I do not understand and start talking to people and asking them about themselves. And in the past 3 years I have met so many interesting people! I have learned so much about them and I have learned so much about myself. I have learned that if everyone was the same, the world would be a pretty boring place. I have learned that despite what we hear, in general everyone wants the same things! Everyone wants to be happy and healthy! They want their families and friends to be happy and healthy! Life really isn't as complicated as we make it out to be and life is precious and special and beautiful.

One thing that my friends and I used to do when we were teenagers was to mock others, make fun of their clothes, their hair, whatever came to mind. It was not my most shining moment. I look back now and realize that I was trying to make myself feel better, but it really did the opposite. While I was being mean and cruel to others I was also worried about what others were saying about me! And thus I tried to make decisions based on what I thought others wanted from me and not things that I wanted!!! I made bad choices and lots of mistakes and felt really bad about myself. Once I decided to stop judging others, I was surprised that it made me feel better too! I was less concerned about what others thought and now I kind of really don't care what others think! It is a very free feeling and a very liberating feeling! Try it sometime! Next time you are looking at someone with mock in your heart, criticism on the tongue and meanness on the brain, stop and think about what you are doing.

My goal is to relate stories about people I have met and lessons I have learned over my young life and hope that my message will reach one person somewhere and will help them deal with some stress or stresses in their life.

I have a question for my readers;

Can you think of one person that you really dislike, someone who really drives you crazy. Now Right that person's name down on a piece of paper and try to come up with 5 things that are good about that person. If you cannot think of 5 things, try to talk to this person, ask them questions about their life. See what you can learn from your encounter with this person.

Please feel free to comment and let me know what happens! You may surprise yourself!

I will let you know about the person who does this to me in my next post.

Remember laughter really is the best medicine. It's free and contagious! Laugh from deep within you!