A Ramble on Kindness

I was thinking tonight about people in the world...
Throughout life there are battles to be fought I suppose, but most battles are just not worth fighting in my thinking. As an adult, I much prefer peace. Walking away or turning the other cheek has always been my first choice of action.
I am not a fighter. If someone wants to be unkind to me, I notice it but always face it with the same motto. Don't worry about the things you cannot change and if you can change something, just do it and move on.
I try hard to put myself in their place and see life from their window on the world. Sometimes it helps and other times there is just no way to see the world in their light, then I just have to reconcile that its just the way they are and I will never understand.
However it seems in life you are occasioned to meet a few folks that have an unbending, unyielding need to hold a grudge. Its certainly not healthy for them.
You wonder what life is for them to be always working in this frame of mind.
After a period of time, I will notice such behavior as you see them always on the defensive and see that their own behaviors are destructive to their own peace and happiness. Kindness would dictate a non active reaction to their never letting go, but your heart bleeds for them as there is no peace for them, only watching and waiting for the next opportunity to strike out. How terribly sad.
You only have one true compassionate way to deal with them....feel sorry for them, have sympathy for them. It can't be good to be in their skin. Most times they are like old ladies watching out their windows to see what the neighbor does and where they go.
Dealing with such folk, falls into that category about not worrying about someone else's baggage as you can't change it for them.
The one thing we all can do and have the power to do is to not be like them. To move beyond and look at the good things about them. To praise them for something they do well. Tell them if you can that you are not doing battle with them and that you wish them only the best. You wish them peace in the matter. If you have no asked for forgiveness for whatever it is that offended them, then do so. Even if you did nothing wrong, you can ask to be forgiven for any thing that has caused them to be upset.
Its all in their court after that.
Be passive. Do not throw a stone back after they have thrown another one at you, even after they have thrown 50 at you Learn to love the unlovable.
I believe we all have these types of people put in our lives at one time or another, to help us grow spiritually. A test perhaps and if not a test, then certainly an opportunity to learn a better way. Fortunately, there have only been a couple of these "keep the one sided battle going" type people in my life.
For each one, and there has been just a couple as I said, they have stretched me, made me a better person. Taught me to seek compassion and kindness above all else.
May kindness and compassion spread like the seeds of this grass, softy floating through the air to land on fertile soil.

Count it all joy....