There is beauty in this world, too

This world can be cruel. People can be cruel. I’m always taken aback by how hard it is to navigate this life when you are dealing with others. We witness so many acts of cruelty, thoughtlessness, selfishness that it can corrupt our own hearts. But good people can be taken advantage of (this happens more often than not), kindness can be squandered. Compassion and empathy are important to cultivate, but remember to guard your soul. Don’t let yourself be used. Don’t let someone take so much from you that there isn’t anything left of you. It isn’t selfishness to protect yourself from utter destruction. It isn’t cruel to come to a point where you can no longer give or help or protect a person from themselves. It isn’t a character flaw to realize that there isn’t anyway to help the other person. We are not responsible for the actions of others. We cannot save someone who doesn’t wish to be saved. Sometimes in reaching out to save them they can drag you right over the edge with them. Don’t let yourself fall. Don’t be a victim to manipulation. Don’t allow yourself to be swept up into their madness or drama or misery. This life is hard. It’s cruel. It’s sadness and heartache and broken dreams and promises, but there is beauty here, too. There is wonder and laughter and happiness. There is kindness and strength and amazement. There is perfection beyond the chaos…if you can only hold onto it. If you can just look beyond the hard times to the easier parts of this journey. In order to get there, you have to remember to take care of yourself. You have to realize that not everyone wants to be saved. You have to protect your goodness from those that wish to take it from you. I’m usually a golden rule kinda girl, but what we forget to teach our children, what we forget to do for ourselves is to look at the situation from the outside. View our sacrifices as if it were a loved one making those sacrifices. I try to see everything from as many angles as possible. If this situation was to happen to my son, would I want him to feel guilty? Would I want him to allow himself to be treated this way? If this was my daughter would I want her to wreck her life to save the drowning person? Not that they are drowning in water, but drowning in their own misery. Yes, some people can be saved. Sometimes you reach out a hand for them and they are great full … but sometimes they just want company in their world. No one should ever take your light, your happiness away from you. No one should want or expect you to wallow in their darkness with them. Life is way too short to subject yourself to that. We only get a limited time here, so do the most good you can for others, but remember that you are a person, too. You deserve to be happy as much as anyone else does, so save some of it for yourself. Self preservation is a good quality sometimes, too. And this one person that is trying to take you down with them isn’t the only one that needs you in their life … more people need you than you can imagine.