Sweet Zone

 

I’m thinking… there’s a sweet zone too between a relationship - 
that is ‘too easy’ and ‘too difficult’ for my (our) present experience too.
 
I remember a point thinking “Heavenly Father knows how to love difficult people…”
And feeling like “I want to learn how to love more of the difficult people of this world.”
I guess that’s what I’ve spent many decades learning.
(And… a good question to ask myself is…
“to what extent am I one of the difficult people of the world???!!!”)
 
That reminds me of a poster my sister and I had on the back of our bedroom door.
“It’s easy enough to be pleasant
When life goes by with a song.
But the man worthwhile
Is the one who can smile
When everything goes dead wrong.”
 
I want to become one of those who has learnt to smile "when everything goes dead wrong."
 
Last evening we had a “Finding Strength in the Lord -  Emotional Resilience” class at the chapel.
This is a ‘new’ or ‘new to me’ course in the Self Reliance section of the Gospel Library.
I asked to be a part of it to ‘see what it is like’ in relation to all that I have studied.
It is a very useful tool I think.
 
Anyway, in the discussion number 8 about ‘Communication and Relationships’
I thought of my learning gradually over many years to discern between
What is my problem – In what ways “Am I too tough?" …"too tender?”
What is your problem – In what ways do I see you as "too tough?"  …"too tender?"
Which of us needs to work on which?
 
In truth, I think we all need to work on both…
And then there are the extremes when
“Actually, this is not so much about me being inadequate, disordered,
there’s actually something more inadequate, disordered about you.”
 
And then I need to learn how to deal with it.
Or deliberately disengage – for my good, for your good, for our children’s good…
 
And if I need to learn how to deal with the challenges I can see, here,
I’m going to have to learn a whole lot more than I know now!
And how do I learn it?  Where is the knowledge I need?
Who can help me find it, and learn what I need to learn?
 
I’ve lain awake this middle of the night thinking about
personality disorders and character disorders.
Personality weaknesses and character weaknesses.
 
As I understand it now...

Character weaknesses and disorders result from neglect in the first nine months of life.
Personality weaknesses and disorders come about from neglect in the first two years of life.
There are critical lessons we need to learn in those time periods…
If we’re not able to learn them in that time, in a sense we are 'handicapped.'
And if we couldn’t learn those lessons in the first two years of life, it’s not actually our fault…
 
But as we become legally accountable adults, (over 18) we have the responsibility of dealing with learning what we lacked in our earlier years.
 
We need to take emotional remedial action - because we are actually, fundamentally, spiritually, emotionally and socially handicapped! (And legally liable for our behaviour...)
 
And just because we’re handicapped, doesn’t mean we ought not to do whatever we can
to be as mentally and emotionally resilient and easy to live with as possible.
 
That’s not easy to identify, admit, and remedy!
We’ll always have to watch ourselves, and our thoughts and our actions - 
Protect our handicapped selves from predators,
and guard ourselves so we don’t become predators of other vulnerable ones around us.

All functional adults know they need to watch themselves, their thoughts, words and actions...
 
Actually… We’re all vulnerable in some way or another I’m thinking…
Am I inclined to be too trusting, or not trusting enough?
 
So… we each have to learn “Do I need to trust more people, more often?
Or do I need to trust more people around me less often?”
Or any combination of those…
 
So in a sense, the seemingly advantaged among us are disadvantaged in some ways (too trusting,)
And the seemingly disadvantaged are advantaged in some ways (not trusting enough.)
We all need to trust wisely and appropriately, and distrust wisely and appropriately.
 
That makes me think…
We all need to learn and do what is appropriate in any given situation and relationship,
what is flexible enough,
and problem solving
in our personal and relational circumstances from day to day.
 
That’s quite a mature feat!
And… each of us can’t be more mature than we’ve had opportunity to be at any given time!
You can’t know yet at twenty what you’ll be able to know at forty or sixty!
And some of us will never be able to know and do what we actually need to know and do…
 
So… the conclusion of our lesson last night…
Charity…
Charity for others… and ourselves too I’m thinking…
And compassion for others… and ourselves too…
As we learn about ourselves, and the others in our lives…
Taking many closer and more distant variables into consideration…
 
And learning, learning, learning... what we don’t know yet, and need to know…
And then learning what we need to know, and learning how to apply it…
 
Along the way we discover what is appropriate in our unique personal and relational circumstances -
We discover what is flexible enough, and also discover what is not too flexible
(because too flexible and not flexible enough are both adding to the problem
instead of problem solving)
 
What a Divine Education!
“Divine Tutoring” and a  “Custom Designed Curriculum”  Elder Neal A Maxwell called it…
 
I’m a certain witness of being Taught From On High
when no earthly sources that I knew of were available to me.
And… I now see that I was being nudged towards the mission
that my patriarchal blessing outlines as one of mine – in His service,
and in the service of some of His children around me.
 
And now… having typed this all out…
Perhaps I’ll be able to sleep!
 
I hope this is some use to you, as it has been to me to order my thoughts and impressions.