Cream and Sugar?
I recently met a friend for an early breakfast at a small, local diner. One of those places that has kept its roots firm in the same town with a few minor make-overs throughout the years. It was raining that kind of rain that seems unsure of itself. A drizzle, but not quite. Like walking through a fallen cloud.
I found her perched in the corner, her lists and planners scattered about her. Colors and check marks, those jellies I used to steal and hoard for no particular reason as a child, and creamers that didn't quite make the toss to their container. Water untouched, coffee near gone. A child's smile, loose sweatshirt, mermaid hair and caffeine pulling color to her cheeks. She is one of those people that could make a cement block look comfortable.
We were meeting to go over something huge for her, yet she could've fooled her own mother.
Waitress strolled over, food ordered, coffee refilled. Planners away, actual planning discussed. She pulled some kind of positive out of the situation like a kid pulling a few struggling flowers out of the mud. She cast her gaze down.
"What I'm worried about. Well, I guess I shouldn't be worried."
"What?" I put the mug back down to its ring on the paper placemat. She picked hers up.
"I'm worried that people are going to be judgy."
Well, yes. Yes they are. They will be no matter what your decision, no matter what stage of life, no matter what success you achieve. Here she was, staring down a fork in the road, and what tormented her was not where she was going, but what the people behind her were going to say when she chose.
I delivered the pep talk. It was super elaborate.
"Let them."
Let them talk about you. Let them gossip and discuss what you should be doing, how you should've said that, what you could've done or should have done. They will talk to other people. Most people won't bother or care to ask you, they'll take the gossip and run with it. Entertainment. They'll treat you differently. Go with the masses. Let them.
I opened my mouth to follow it up, but she already had it.
"You find out who your true friends are I guess."
There aren't many.
People seek entertainment, at any cost, whether its a country concert or a train wreck, they'll pull out their phones and record it. It makes you want to rip your hair out and scream. But its pointless. They'll be too occupied with what they'll tell everyone about your tantrum later. You can't make them like you, you can't make them get it, and really, at the end of the day, do you even want those fickle people on your team?
She put her coffee down. Black. Unsweetened, no creamer, no buffers. I take mine the same.
Let those sugar and cream people have a ball.
Matthew 7:1-5
I found her perched in the corner, her lists and planners scattered about her. Colors and check marks, those jellies I used to steal and hoard for no particular reason as a child, and creamers that didn't quite make the toss to their container. Water untouched, coffee near gone. A child's smile, loose sweatshirt, mermaid hair and caffeine pulling color to her cheeks. She is one of those people that could make a cement block look comfortable.
We were meeting to go over something huge for her, yet she could've fooled her own mother.
Waitress strolled over, food ordered, coffee refilled. Planners away, actual planning discussed. She pulled some kind of positive out of the situation like a kid pulling a few struggling flowers out of the mud. She cast her gaze down.
"What I'm worried about. Well, I guess I shouldn't be worried."
"What?" I put the mug back down to its ring on the paper placemat. She picked hers up.
"I'm worried that people are going to be judgy."
Well, yes. Yes they are. They will be no matter what your decision, no matter what stage of life, no matter what success you achieve. Here she was, staring down a fork in the road, and what tormented her was not where she was going, but what the people behind her were going to say when she chose.
I delivered the pep talk. It was super elaborate.
"Let them."
Let them talk about you. Let them gossip and discuss what you should be doing, how you should've said that, what you could've done or should have done. They will talk to other people. Most people won't bother or care to ask you, they'll take the gossip and run with it. Entertainment. They'll treat you differently. Go with the masses. Let them.
I opened my mouth to follow it up, but she already had it.
"You find out who your true friends are I guess."
There aren't many.
People seek entertainment, at any cost, whether its a country concert or a train wreck, they'll pull out their phones and record it. It makes you want to rip your hair out and scream. But its pointless. They'll be too occupied with what they'll tell everyone about your tantrum later. You can't make them like you, you can't make them get it, and really, at the end of the day, do you even want those fickle people on your team?
She put her coffee down. Black. Unsweetened, no creamer, no buffers. I take mine the same.
Let those sugar and cream people have a ball.
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