Walk A Mile...

When I originally started this blog, it was to showcase my love for photography.  I quickly learned that I needed an outlet for my emotions, to put my words on "paper" instead of keeping them bottled up so tightly inside.  With all the pain and heartache that every month brings, comes a whole flood of emotions.  Trying to find a way to "deal" with these emotions is a constant battle.

We've all heard the quote about walking a mile in someone else's shoes.  It wasn't until recently that I came across a better version of it which read, "Before you accuse, criticize and abuse, walk a mile in my shoes.".  If everyone could stop for a minute and think about this before doing any of those three things, the world would be a much happier place.  Often times, we are all so quick to take someone's word about someone before getting to know that person for ourselves.  When we do this, we are only robbing ourselves of the opportunity to get to know someone on our own terms without any preconceived notions.  I admit, I've been guilty of this in the past.  If a friend of mine didn't like someone, then that must have meant they were a bad person and in turn, I didn't like that person.  If you would have asked me why, the only thing I had to go off of was what I had heard.  When I ventured out, put the "He Said, She Said" crap aside and got to know some of these people, I came to find that I was definitely robbing myself of the joy of getting to know them.

I have recently found myself on the flip side of things.  Apparently I am now the one that people are trying to break down.  Being a person that always went out of my way to please everyone, I found this shocking and incredibly hurtful.  I've always tried to live my life with honesty and integrity.  As I've said before, I am far from perfect and have definitely had my mis-steps and have made my fair share of mistakes.  However, each of these mistakes has helped to shape me into the person I am today and I continue to learn from these mistakes every day that I'm here on this earth.

We all need to remember that nobody is perfect.  We all have our quirks, faults and bad habits, that is what makes us individuals.  The next time someone is trying to sway your view on someone, stop for a minute and think about your experiences with that person...