Kindness Applied

Well I failed... When my grandma and aunt came to visit me, I was beyond kind. I dropped everything I had going on for the weekend and made sure they knew how much I loved them and how much I appreciated their long trip up north to see me. Towards the end of the weekend, tensions of course started to rise. My grandma and aunt started to bicker and I would try and distract the other one by changing the subject. A couple of times, when my grandma started to get very judgmental towards my aunt, I complimented her and told her how much I loved her earrings which changed her mood completely and I knew I had accomplished something. Then the last day came and my grandma changed her judgmental ways from my aunt unto myself. I was alright with this, since I would rather take the anger from her than have my aunt endure it. But this time it was extreme. She judged the way I looked, the ways I am taking on school, the liberal ideals that I believe in, members of my family's sexuality and explained to me I was very ignorant. Sadly, all of my kindness ideals went out the window and rather a different  top strength of mine, bravery, became apparent. I stood up for what  I believed in and I told her that I thought her behavior was extremely inappropriate. I never spoke back to her with harsh words but rather with an open heart and tried to explain myself to her. I hope next time when I am confronted with this situation, on Thanksgiving, I will be able to be kind and take a deep breath and walk away from the situation.

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