Choice and Toleration

So, it's been a while since I posted, and life has been interesting of late.

The good news is that most of the life changes I've been working on have come to fruition. Medical tests, poetry submissions, and all...

Some of you know I've removed a lot of the tolerations from my life by now. Just a few more to go, which are the ones most difficult - hence saved for the last. But I think we all have at least a few tolerations we don't have much choice doing totally away with... the ones we know will never change but that have to stay in our lives. This is when it is time to change our paradigms instead. People will not change until we change, and even still, they may not. The thing that might change is that they are removed from our lives if our paradigms don't fit together well enough to coincide and walk together through life anymore.

Case in point... the four friends I was closest to as a child, and the four I was closest to as a teenager were totally different from each other and even more-so this is true today. The eight I mention from earlier years have not really grown up - at least from what I can tell - into people I'd want to have in my life, which is sad but the truth. There are no words to describe how I wish they had continued changing and becoming well-rounded individuals who are good for society, and a couple of them might be... the six I know about, however, are lacking in this arena greatly, and all I can do is hope for them from a distance. If they were in my life, I would be tolerating what I know isn't couth about how they are living. Even though I wish they were there, in my life, I know they would be toxic and extremely unhealthy for me.

The same can be said in your life. Who do you just tolerate? The people whose actions speak louder than their words and where those actions say "danger" or "toxic" or "wow, really???" The people who you know will egg you on or jack you up or treat you lesser for whatever their reasons are. The people who, when you see them or they call you, you internally cringe. But is it really the people themselves?

No.

It's their actions, and until and unless THOSE change, the people carrying the actions represent to you a toleration. Something you are putting up with but that you really don't need to. You can choose to keep them in your life, or to remove them from your life; you can choose to change yourself or to sit down for a talk about the behavior and see how things unfold. You have a choice. And sometimes that choice, if they are people you MUST have in your life for some reason, is to change your own paradigm because they will never change.

You can change how YOU respond or interact with them by choosing a different way. You can CHOOSE what to say or not say, do or not do. You can CHOOSE. What will you choose?