The Golden Rule

"It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it is
good too to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't
lost the things that money can't buy."
-George Horace

Have you ever heard of the Golden Rule?
"Treat others as you'd love to be treated."
Well, now you have- and what do you make of it? Is it something simple
or is it something that is very difficult like "forgive and forget?"
So, I was up at 5am today and I decided to read some novels and finish
them up before getting out of bed. I stepped onto the cold floor at
8:04am because believe it or not- today is my day of rest. Yes, I mean
today I take a break from all house chores as my younger sister gets
to help around. It felt really good because working around the house
from Monday to Friday is not easy- especially when you have to report
to work then come home and tend to people (kudos to all the hard
working and domesticated mothers out there!)

You know, it is very hard being nice to someone who is nothing but
mean. It is like being politically correct- you put on a face and an
act for the sake of something that you are after. It is not easy being
courteous when someone is very rude and disrespectful- but a friend
just told me yesterday- "do not take everything to heart Dora, you'll
die young!"
I know I have talked of the Four Agreements and one of them is "Do not
take things personally."
It is very easy to achieve this and I had to try it on a mean
acquaintance. He did not seem to want to help with the research
analysis or even let me use the office computer to see if the program
set of questionnaires I developed would work. To make it worse when I
was asked to download applications on the phones for field officers-
he literally walked out to lunch with the keys to the store room. So
when he came back (an hour later) I was reading my book and listening
to Gavin DeGraw's album (Sweeter). He walked past me and went back to
work. I stayed there till 3pm. He came to yell at me at half past
three saying I was wasting office time and there was a lot to be done.
I smiled at him and thanked him for the advice. He asked "what
advice?" I told him "you say I am wasting office time, yet you have
done everything to ensure that I cannot do my job, so thank you and
seeing that I leave the office at 4pm, you will have to do what I was
scheduled to do, in fact the Coordinator told me to tell you to see
him when you get back."
He stomped off and I continued listening to my music till 4pm. He was
doing my work as I was leaving- and cursing away because he could not
read through the program codes, but I learned something valuable from
him- if you take up the role of being a stumbling block to others, you
not only block their path, but you leave yours wide open such that any
opportunity speeds away from you.
Treat people as you would like to be treated. It does not mean that
everyone will be nice, in fact people might be twice as bad, but as
long as you are never the one to cause someone pain intentionally- or
make their life harder, you have nothing to be worried about.

--
How can one change the world if one identifies oneself with everybody?