Rolling With It

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This mind-over-matter exercise is harder than I thought it would be. It seems I'm a fount o' negativity, as it were.

Living in a condo complex, I have the burden joy of overhearing many a neighbor's conversations. The other day, a girl was walking down the hall when a door slammed...HARD. I heard her sigh loudly and say, "I don't f*cking want to deal with this sh*t today." A man yelled "what?" after her and she repeated herself.

Deal with what?
Your attitude. I was fine. I was leaving.

It was at this point that I heard the man go after her, yelling at her with his head sticking out the door of our building, while she walked away and got into her car. I was about to be annoyed when I realized we all do this, day in and day out. When faced with an annoyance, rather than let it go, so often...like a mob just getting word of a fight down the street...we jump at the chance to fight. Or at least I do.

I'm not a "let it roll off your back" kind of girl. I never thought of myself as confrontational, but when you think that someone is always trying to get the best of you, put you down, call you stupid, call you worthless, you find yourself in battle positions. A jab, a joke, can feel like an insult. The lack of a smile can feel like spite. A voicemail message can sound like disregard. A frustrated sigh can sound like footsteps out the door.

For today, I need to put my boxing gloves away and just roll with it...go with the flow.