Welcome to the beautiful month of May. We have now began the second quarter of the year and I must say, I am really thankful for the previous months, and hopeful that this month would be even better.
I'm pretty sure most of you would be wondering what this post is all about, as the media has now been infested with the recent release "Lemonade".
Well, let's just say I chose to focus on the "lemon" bit of the "lemonade" which most of us, I admittedly, fail to recognise.
The problem of "seeming" versus "being" isn't a particulaly new one when it comes to social media. We find people aspiring to create an image of who they are not, just to portray some sort of lifestyle. In other cases, we find it easy to read meanings into almost everthing we come across on the media, and even get very judgemental with regards to other people and their businesses. More worse, we start to kill our self esteems by comparing ourselves with others, forgetting that the juice (lemonade) is what they give and not the chaff (lemon). In essence, we don't know the real deal. We only see what they want us to see and based on that, we begin to asses ourselves, compare and possibly pass our endless judgements.
Speaking of judgments particularly, we can't change the way we appear to others, it is something we aren't in total control of. But we can change the way we look at other people.
Everyone goes through challenges in life and we need to remind ourselves that in other to know the full story, we have to give others the chance to tell it. We cant make our own assumptions based on the little we see. It all begins with having empathy.
Dont judge the young mother who can't calm her child down at the mall, it doesn't mean she is not a good mother. Empathise with the fact that her child might just be grumpy that day. Don't judge the couple arguing at the shops, it doesn't mean they are in an abusive relationship. Empathise with how all relationships go through difficult times. Dont judge a friend for how they express their emotions, it doesn't mean they are cold hearted. Empathise with the troubled childhood that led them to feel that way. Dont judge someone on their past alone, it doesn't mean they can't change. Empathise with the fact that even good people make mistakes.
Always remember that the "cover" that we see is only a part of the book itself. Let's not be too quick to judge without turning the pages first.
Have a blessed week ahead.:)