On Wednesday, January 6, I was disgusted at the day’s events and posted a number of articles from the New York Times, while sharing my own thoughts, on Facebook.
The next day I received an email from what turned out to be a guardian angel, giving me advice on my posts. Essentially, they said that as a leader of a non-profit organization, I need to be more prudent and not let my emotions show through rants, that I need to take the high road, be patient, be inclusive.
I knew that I needed to heed this advice as this felt like a gut punch. Whenever I get this feeling in my stomach, I know that I need to get outside of myself and breathe. I tend to overly think things and to feel a sense of guilt, as if somehow, I won’t make mistakes. But of course, I do.
I deleted a number of posts and took out my editorializing. I spoke with my son who affirmed what this person had said to me.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve felt this type of gut punch or that I’ve had a guardian angel who cared enough about what I was doing to give me some advice. Although some of these people didn’t realize what they were giving me, they showed me, through their actions, what I needed to learn and fortunately I was open to listening to my observations.
I realize that I’ve been preaching to “my choir” but that this doesn’t really help the underlying situation. My intention wasn’t to inflame but this angel shared with me that I was. This made me think about how I have my own opinions about life’s events, which others don’t necessarily agree with. Why would they?
As I recently sat in the dentist chair, one of the assistants asked me if I had made any New Year’s resolutions. I said no, but then sheepishly said, “I want to be a better person.” Innocuous, vanilla coated, generic.
As I continued to think and feel what this person brought to my attention about my social media postings, I realized that yes, I do want to be a better person. I’m continually striving for this and am blinded by my own insulation. I’ll still get upset about the United States, as I care very much about this country and the people who live here. But I now know that I don’t have to post things on Facebook that might inflame situations. As my son said, “Your postings won’t change anyone’s mind anyway.” In fact, my postings might hurt others and my personal affiliations, as well as, my personal integrity.
It’s not about the fact that I’ve put myself in numerous leadership positions—this is more about being a decent and thoughtful person. I’m not going to be posting as much political articles on Facebook — I may disagree but I’ll post more positive ways of looking at issues. We know that the US is very divided, but as Mr. Biden has stated: it’s time for healing. I’d rather be part of the healing than the alternative.
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