Life is full of surprises.
One can never tell who will come into their Lives.
One can never tell who will leave their Lives.
So many different factors play into the way Life unfolds.
Loving someone with mental illness is very difficult.
A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood or ability to relate to other people that can result in a disruption of daily functioning.
People with mental illness are unpredictable and it is difficult to tell what kind of behaviors this type of person will exhibit when their stress level hits an ultimate high point.
The hardest part of dealing with someone very close to you who has mental illness, is that at many times, when things have hit a low, these types of people aren’t very nice and they don’t care if their behaviors lead others to hurt or suffer. They exhibit very selfish traits and they don’t feel bad if they cause other’s harm.
It’s really difficult to not give up on someone who has mental illness. It is difficult to keep confident in people when they aren’t nice to you and the things they do lead you to feel bad.
Being a loyal person makes it hard to give up on people, even if they do exhibit behaviors that aren’t good.
When people you thought you could rely on, treat you badly, this is very frustrating.
One of my staff, X, is also having a hard time dealing with someone in his Life who is exhibiting behaviors of a mentally unsound person.
After he told me his story, I felt frustrated for him, as I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of someone’s negative mind.
Together, we were having a really bad day.
In order to take out some frustration, I handed him a package that had just arrived for me in the mail. Inside the package, is a gift that I intended to give someone special, but as Life has happened, I hadn’t had the opportunity to present yet.
Motioning for X to follow me, I handed him the sealed box, and told him to come outside. Another one of my staff, curious, followed us to see where we were going and what we were doing.
Walking towards the door, to the backyard outside, I instructed X to open the box and I told him that what was inside the box, we were going to smash to the ground.
When Life hands you frustrating situations, perhaps a little venting might produce some stress relief.
Instead of smashing someone’s psyche or making someone feel bad, smashing something to hear a loud sound and to exert some strong force seemed like the lesser of two evils.
X was excited, nervous and curious all at once. We had both hit a very high stress level and standing outside with no jackets, in the freezing cold, in the middle of snow, holding a package we were about to smash, got us to stop for a second and take some time to realize that there are decisions we can take to make things in our Life better or worse.
He tore open the box, curious to know what we were going to destroy.
As he ripped open the card board, he pulled out a black case, just over 2 ft long.
He looked confused, as he slowly unzipped the case.
Inside, he found a brand new beautiful, baby blue violin.
X looked up to me with fear in his eyes. He looked long and hard, studying my face, wondering why I wanted him to smash this perfect little instrument into the ground.
As he looked into my eyes, I said, “Ok, now with one shot, smash it to the ground. It makes no sense to bash people, to hurt others with words, to hurt anyone physically, when you can just smash this right now and get out some of your frustration.”
He knew I wasn’t joking.
He was holding the small beautiful violin in one of his hands. He looked towards me and then he looked at the ground.
His eyes started filling up with tears.
“I can’t do it. I can’t smash this violin. I just can’t break this , I am sorry. I don’t know who you got this for, but I can’t destroy this instrument. Maybe tomorrow I will do it, but not today.
I smiled and gave him a hug, motioning for him to follow me inside.
Honestly, I was happy that he didn’t smash the violin. I had bought the violin as a gift for someone I love.
The violin is symbolic of someone’s dream. The beautiful little violin is perfect.
Someone wished for that violin to learn to play beautiful music, which is something that will bring joy to people, not hurt.
It gave me hope that my friend didn’t smash the violin. His strength helped me realize that we are responsible for each choice we make.
My friend had a real stressful few days and he was telling me over the weekend he had come to his knees begging God for strength to make strong choices not to do anything that would cause anyone ill harm.
He had been placed in a situation where he had to make a choice to react in peace or in a manner that might have changed his Life forever.
He said that he got on his knees holding onto an elephant bracelet that was made for him as a gift from a very special young child who is the daughter of one of my friends.
He loves that bracelet and he never takes it off. It was made for him out of love from a child, the most pure form of love that exists.
I was glad that he was able to draw strength from something that makes him feel security.
“Funny, I said, It’s very interesting that you are telling me this story – because the violin is a gift for the very same little girl who made you that bracelet. Life takes people in different places, maybe I will give it to her, maybe I won’t, but either way it represents hope for good things.”
He was very happy that we hadn’t bashed the violin into pieces. He was happy that I still have the violin and will be able to give it to that very special young girl, who is protecting us and teaching us lessons without her even knowing.
The true magnificence of a beautiful soul.
Don’t ask any of my friends – they will tell you that I am the craziest of them all…….
But I dare say, I beg to differ………….
Tags: Believe, Flowmustgo, Life, Love
