—Jen Keefe
photo by Ester Siroky
Once a mom was being argumentative and defensive. She deleted a long discussion out of spite or frustration, but some of us rescued it. Here's a peek (some of my response), and a link.Pretending to think about suggestions for a few days before rejecting them would be more courteous, and you *might* find that pretending to think about something could turn to actually considering it.
Moments of quiet focus, and photo evidence of those, are both a bit magical. |
I responded:
Fear doesn't hit you with a stick in a dark alley.An additional problem, though, is that it also treats "fear" as something outside herself, that comes toward her and assaults her when she least expects it.
Don't use the word "assaults."
It's too dramatic and it makes you a victim.
Maybe ALL the negative words are doing that—personifying, or anthropomorphizing, an emotion as an external enemy. So some would say "it's just semantics," but it's a map of one's emotions that ranges outside the body and builds bad guys, I'm thinking.
If you can recall a moment when you comforted an animal, you are remembering a good-hearted action. If you can think of four, or six, times that you made another creature feel safer, warmer, happier, you might induce the same feelings you had then.
Peaceful memories can be soothing.