Breaking the Mould

FOR SOME STRANGE REASON we human beings often set our minds on pigeon-holing others. We hate it when others do it to us, but we know how our minds work. Breaking the mould others set for us is a key task of life.

***

Some have said we are just like “this,”

When really they shouldn’t say,

Some people’s thoughts we should just dismiss,

Yet our grace we still convey.

Why will some gleefully categorise,

When only heaven truly knows?

They don’t understand, care or surmise,

The effect of those cruel blows.

Unsolicited remarks do tend,

To endanger relations that pose,

A threat to trust—hearts to rend,

And veiled friends become foes.

Breaking the mould is not about them,

That’s one fact we can collect,

The mould that’s created is ours alone,

A responsibility we ought to accept.

***

Hard as it seems, the “moulds” that people put us into—whether deserved or undeserved—are ours to break. It’s not really their fault that we are hurt because of it. They are only the stimulus. We are the ones with the responsibility to deal with what’s coming in and to adjust.

The old adage that ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me’ is rubbish. The mud of others preconceptions, both unsaid and said, sticks—we all have radar for it. The moment that it does stick, however, it is over to us. How will we respond? There are two ways: the wrong way and the right way.

Their negative conceptions of us are best countered by us in grace. It’s the only way we free up our minds to deal with the negativity that we experience because of them. We operate in grace because we know, intimately, the power of hurt in such negatives.

When we commit to sowing in love, we will reap more love as a result.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.