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My Paragraph In History

I've been having trouble with the news lately.

Actually, I mean, the media. Social media, television news, internet news, the radio...everything. Information travels so quickly that the minute a thought or idea or event is put out into the world, the world immediately jumps on it and responds to it. Here's my perspective:
1. Something happens (a Tweet is posted, an event occurs)
2. If the thing is negative, the Media FREAKS out. Tweets are sent, Facebook posts are made, television news broadcasts information about it live for 2,845 hours straight.
3. People argue about the thing behind the safety of their phone screens or computer monitors.
4. People continue to disagree and argue and dissect the thing that happened.
5. People assume the world is coming to an end and we are doomed.
6. Something else is Tweeted/posted/another event occurs.
7. The Media FREAKS out...

It's so recursive and I occasionally allow this cycle to drive me crazy. We hop from one thing to the next thing to the next thing like we are changing radio stations during commercials. And do we ever really internally resolve what we were freaking out about in the first place? 

Probably not.

It's easy to be caught up in this cycle. There are an infinite number of thoughts and events to be upset about. How do we decide what we let inside our hearts and minds? It seems overwhelming.

If my life could be a paragraph in The History Book of Life someday, what would I want it to say? 

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. If I allow EVERY SINGLE FRUSTRATING THING to worm its way inside of me, I would probably be discovered in the fetal position with my blankie in the corner of my basement. (I may or may not have been found in this manner in the past.) 

I don't want my paragraph to include all of the angry words I've spewed. I don't want my paragraph to include all of the times I argued about something frustrating. I want my paragraph to detail my big life events and how those life events changed me for the better.

My mom would always talk about the pendulum in her career. After she had been working long enough, she spoke of watching the pendulum sway from one side to the other. She could see how the philosophies of 20 years ago would shift, but then swing back years later. Turning 40 has given me that perspective, also. And it's fascinating.

The ability to step back and see the world and my career and my children's experiences from a grander perspective has changed me in the last few months. 

Yup, there's bad stuff happening in the world.
Yup, there are really frustrating Tweets put out into the world.
Yup, there are Narcissistic people in my life who will always be connected to me.
Yup, there are decisions made in my job that are contradictory to what I believe.
Yup, we need to decide what is important enough to let inside our hearts and minds.

Middle school is tough for one of my kids right now. The kid doesn't have the perspective to understand that life is not middle school. (Thank God.) It gets better. The crappy way you feel this second will probably not continue into the next week or even the next day.

Stepping back has been freeing. It's helped me see that every frustrating idea or event in the world doesn't mean the world is bad. The pendulum swings. Life doesn't stay the same. The mistakes I've made don't make me who I am. The sadness I've experienced doesn't make my life sad. 

My stupid mistakes won't be included about me in my paragraph of the History of the World. 

We don't have control over other people. But we don't have to let every frustrating thing become the Breaking News of our lives.

So yeah. Step back. 

See how the world looks from there.

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