Before I go into what I suppose is a little rant, I just want to say, I hope everyone is doing okay and I hope that this does make a few people think and make others laugh…which is completely allowed at this time! In fact, its needed!
This is all very difficult on lots of people and it has been so lovely to see everyone coming together to help one another and showing a lot of appreciation to our key workers. To be honest, I give a genuine applause to anyone who hasn’t killed their partner, sibling or any other family member, from being stuck inside the house. Seriously. Humans were never meant to live on top of one another in this way. But, we do what we need to do right now to survive.
However, I was reminded yesterday that there are still people in this world who really do not care about anyone but themselves and it was in the stupedist scenario ever! Now, I completely invite you to laugh at this situation, because, looking back I can now laugh at it. At the time, I genuinely cried and wanted to punch somebody.
Let me set the scene: I had had a bit of a bad morning, having had an argument with my family and decided to go for my daily walk with my dog. Its sunny, clear skies and I have just had a chat with my boyfriend who has cheered me up completely. Hes a key worker, so we couldn’t chat long, before he was off his break and had to get back. I’m walking down this road, when I get to a bit of off road track bust is a cut through. Please bare in mind that this is a wide road. Two people are walking towards me with their dog. Now, my dog is fine with other dogs as long as they aren’t bigger than him. Clearly, with the current situation, we dont want to be going anywhere near them. So, I’m holding my dog back. The owner puts his dog back on the lead (which looked like an extremely long piece of rope) and let is hang very loose, hardly holding his dog back. My dog is watching him when this dog starts to bark and go for mine. I pull mine back (Archie) and he listens. The other dog goes again and as my dog pulls forward too, I lose my footing and fall over my foot, twist my ankle, whilst dragging my knee across the ground and falling flat on my face.
Did they ask if I was okay? Did they apologise for not keeping their dog back and letting it get so close to mine?
No.
They literally looked at me and walked away! My dog immediately stopped the second I fell over and came by my side. He licked my cheek as I started to cry and sat on the ground holding myself up and completely letting myself just have a moment.
You have no idea what other people are going through. None at all. I was angry with them, yes, but later I was able to laugh at how funny I probably looked in a sitcom kind of way. There are genuinely some people who will never understand how to just be kind to someone. I called my friend, who calmed me down, reminded me to breathe and checked I was okay. A small gesture that was gratefully received.
Later that day I had an influx of people who I am lucky to have in my life, tell me that I am loved and that they were there for me. It completely turned my day around. By the end of the day, I didn’t even really remember what had happened that morning. Come two weeks time, it would even cross my mind once and those people would of been gone from my life. It’s easy sometimes to let people’s actions take over in your head and have an impact and worse of all it can happen with people that you dont even know and who won’t have even given you a second thought. Don’t waste time of people like that. It’s so easy to do and I am the worst for it. I hold onto things and struggle to let go and have done for a long time. I need to take a leaf out of my own book. Don’t let those that aren’t important, affect you and put a downer on your day. Now, more than ever, you need to keep hold of the things that are important to you. That make you smile, laugh and even cry. There is always a balance needed. Negativity in order to see the positive things in life. But dont let it take over and have power over the rest of your day or what you want to do with it. Time is precious. Sometimes it really bloody hurts when you fall, but you just have to get back up again and keep going.
From You the Reader