You're the Inspiration

Coming home after college is always an interesting transition. Some visits are easier to make than others. However, when all is said and done, I'm always glad I made it. For those of you who don't know, I am staying in Indiana until February 1st. (I might have mentioned that in a previous post but since it was so long, you might not have made it that far down.) This means that I get an extra month to spend with some of the best people I know.

Something I've learned in the past couple of days is sometimes the people you love the most push your temper buttons the easiest. While I'm not positive as to why this is I have a couple of theories.

Theory #1:
It is my belief that the basic fundamental element to pure happiness is love. The greatest love is found in the family. Therefore, if one is determined to ruin one's happiness, ruin the family first. That decreases the chances of happiness and increases the chances of contention. Now, if you don't know already, contention is NOT a good thing. In fact, I believe it to be evil. I know when I feel contentious, I lose sight of anything else and become consumed by the reason for my contention, whether it be self-imposed or someone else's action. When you inject that contention into a family, it causes one to forget the ties that bind a family together. They don't disappear per say, they just get hidden.

That was a very round about way to say that I have had my fair share of contentious encounters with family and friends the past few days. Some had pretty minor effects, others were not so minor. It had me very confused. How could I possibly have this much contention in my life while I am home? Sure I had a very few arguments with roommates and friends while away at school but nothing so heated as being home. What happened? Do you want to know what I've decided? Well good! Cause I'm gonna tell ya. ;)

I decided that there has been some extra pushing of those temper buttons in my life. Someone obviously knows that my fuse is pretty short. (I know. For those school friends who are reading this and think I'm the most tolerant person in the world, talk to my parents/siblings/room roomies. They'll tell you all about my temper issues.) But that doesn't mean I have to let it be lit in the first place right? I mean, all the experts say that we choose to get angry or sad or happy or whatever. While I don't always believe that, I DO believe we can decided whether or not to let those emotions continue or not. We choose which emotions to hold on to, if you catch my drift. So that is theory #1

Theory #2
Family members have known you either your whole life or their's. With that length of experience comes knowledge of your weaknesses, strengths, annoyances, passions and so on. If you're a private person, this list may not be all that complete but it is my belief that you can only watch someone so long in life without learning a thing or two about them, whether you want to or not. So with that knowledge, your family has the power to act on that knowledge. Agency is one of the greatest gifts we have. Why we use it to purposely annoy/anger our family members? I dunno. I'm very guilty of this though. I won't deny it. Thus is my theory #2.

I propose I change in all of us. Let's try to cut down on the contention. Let's do away with undue criticism and hurtful words/actions. Let us be mindful of our fellow man as well as ourselves. We could all get along much nicer if we weren't so defensive all the time. We could be less defensive if we weren't worried about the next knife aimed for our backs. Let's be sincere in our words. Let's just love one another.

That's my request. In fact, I think I'll make that my New Year's Resolution! I don't know how I'll track it. I'll think about it some more and let you know. ;)

Good day world!

Good night.