The Beauty Of Simplicity

[Disclaimer: I am not throwing myself a pity party, so please do not treat this as such.] A Letter To Those Who Don't Like Me: I do not know everything. I simply don't. I know you expect so much of me. To be smarter, to have a little more common sense, to understand all social cues. I also know you expect me to be prettier, to laugh less, to talk less. I know you don't like how I treat people. I know you don't like my smile. And I know you don't like that I have any friends at all-- especially if they may be your friends as well. I know that you may think I'm too short.  I'm dramatic. I'm too goofy. And that I'm annoying as heck. I know that my simple existence bothers you. I know that everything and anything I try to do to make it better will never help. And I know that I will never please you, and that kills me. But if I'm to be real for a minute, I shouldn't care. I am training myself to try to understand why you don't like me...

How often do we listen to our friends? To our family? To Strangers? The first step to a great friendship is listening. When we listen to someone we let go of our thoughts, we let go of ourselves, and we listen to them. A wise friend of mine once said, "Listen for the sake of knowledge. Listen for the sake of understanding. Listen for the sake of listening." Sometimes all we can do for a person is listen to them, to let them vent about something. And that's not always bad. In fact, embrace that. Listen to the person, and you will gain a better understanding of the person, which leads us to step two. Step two to a great friendship is understanding the other persons story. And how can we do that while we're talking about ourselves so much? Often we find ourselves listening to reply, but that's not the right way to go about it. We need to listen to understand. Take a minute to look at your life, just take a step back and look at it from a distance. How grea...