Difficult.

It's interesting how you can be taught so much even as you resist it again and again.  The tension in my head today is the reminder that I was bracing myself, that I was trying to avoid learning one very valuable lesson.

I can not control the actions of others.

I know this, of course I know this.  But sometimes it feels like I forget this one very basic truth of life which actually allows me to be freer in the way I live.  Truly.  After all, if I know that I can not control the actions and reactions of others, then I don't have to worry about crafting my words and my actions to suit anyone else.

I want to embody this idea and to realize that the only person whose ideas and actions I can control are my own.  And, really, I don't want to be in charge of everyone else anyway.  Enough to handle on my own.

Challenges surround us, no matter where we go, but why seek out more difficulties when they're not even able to be changed?

As much as I want everyone to do what I want them to do, maybe it's time to look at myself a bit more.  As apparently I'm avoiding that in trying to examine everyone else.