But
perhaps you need that woman in your life right now
because of what you're going to learn from her.
Perhaps you need another few months of a bad
relationship in order to learn truly what a good
relationship can be like. Maybe it's not the job
at all, but the attitude that you bring to work, that's
making you miserable--and if that's the case, then it
could be that you need to be at that job in order to
learn the best kind of attitude for you to bring to a
job. Or maybe the job really is awful, and you
need to learn yourself what it means to take a risk and
leave the job in order to search for something
else. And could it be that you don't give as much
effort as I do in one field because you're giving much
more effort than I ever could at something else? I'm
truly glad that you are you, and I truly want you to be
you--not a reflection of what I wish you to be. I
want you to do the things you want to do, and I hope
that you'll make the decisions that you feel are
appropriate, rather than the decisions that I think you
should make. And if I give you advice and you
ignore it, then that's just fine--I thank you for giving
me the opportunity to make a contribution to your life
in the form of advice. One
of the most beautiful aspects of our world is the
incredible diversity among which we live. But even
given that diversity, we so often seem to want to do our
best to turn other people into our visions of what they
should be rather than what they truly are. This is
simply wrong--a disservice to the world, to the people
themselves, and to ourselves. I
simply cannot know what belief system you need to follow
in order to become the best version of yourself that you
can be. I cannot know what mistakes you need to
make in order to learn what you need to learn. You
can't know what forces drive me the most strongly, which
muses sing the most strongly in my heart of hearts,
which visions and views give me that incredible surge of
appreciation that feels like my heart filling with
splendor. And
I want to let go of my expectations of you, to let you
be just who you are. I want you to be you.
And when you are, our world is a much richer place for
just that very fact.
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