If I do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.

Or if I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.<O:p</O:p

Or if my emotion is less than yours, or more, given the same circumstances, try not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.<O:p</O:p

Or yet if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let me be.<O:p</O:p

I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.<O:p</O:p

I may be your spouse, your parent, your offsping, your friend, or your colleague. If you will allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you open yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong, and might finally appear to you as right -- for me. To put up with me is the first step to understanding me. Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences. <O:p</O:p

This really touched me.
Thank You for sharing it Nova.

thank you for sharing!!!!! I got goose bumbs... sounds like what is going on in my head. so yes, THANK YOU! :)

um, have you been videotaping my household? everyone in this house is forever telling me what i should be like, feel like, act like. i feel like you captured it perfectly. kudos to you, madame...

You mean YOU wanted tickets to Rollerderby On Ice too?

Who knew? :)

You mean YOU wanted tickets to Rollerderby On Ice too?

Who knew? :)
Actually, I was thinking of subjecting you to sitting next to my chattered/scattered lil self, at a Nascar race, McT !!!:p
Nova

O O O I get to sit on the left hand side then lol

Is this your own words or did you read this somewhere?

Is it all right if I print it and post it on my frig, I think every parent needs little reminders that our kids are NOT replica's of ourselves.

When I was in my teens I learned that patiently overlooking or "putting up" with many of the things that made my loved ones "tick", ultimately helped me understand myself.

Keeping my own emotions in check is what led me to better understanding my loved ones and friends. If they were not able to give me the same, then that was their choice. The forgiveness factor hits hard...and realizing "you are not me" and "I am not you".........isn't it great!?

I have enjoyed successful relationships in every realm of my life and I can't help but believe this has been a key factor. As an adult, I see the differences in myself and my children. It has been difficult sometimes to be a parent and teacher without pushing , but they are themselves and are allowed that priveledge.

What I have a problem with is when others cannot return the understanding to me... to allow for my own differences. This is hurtful...but it hasn't changed my attempt to understand them. I suppose that's another difference in itself....another to "put up
with".
But trust me....for the most part I've been extremely fortunate to have been "put up" with!

To understand 'you' is not equal to agreeing with 'you'.

~gourmet~