I’m giving myself permission to not be polite.
Would you like that too?
Like many women, I was raised to be a “good girl”. A welcoming hostess. Unfailingly polite. Accommodating. Carefully making certain that everyone is acknowledged and has what they need. Letting everyone around me determine the pace and direction of whatever is happening. Not making waves.
These days the pace being created is relentless. The direction, headlong into deeper disconnection and selective awareness.
I’ve contributed to this relentless rush to oblivion – by being polite – a good girl – not making waves.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
For all the speaking out and unconventional living I think I do, I’ve still been politely ending my life in too many ways.
So, I’m giving myself permission to be impolite.
I will still be kind, respectful, loving, welcoming, attentive.
I will no longer allow others to determine the pace and direction of my attention, though.
Relentless is not welcome here. Selective awareness, asked to be less selective or go. Willful disconnection – nope.
Tracie, I relate with all you wrote and agree with Dr. King’s words of wisdom. Coming from similar training I finally learned not to be attached to the demands of others and now they no longer swerve my path. This is such a good post.
Thank you so much Malana. I found that I needed to detach both from the demands of others, and from my own indoctrination as a good girl. And the journey is incremental. I’m constantly unearthing new layers