taking it personally

i feel like there is a good chance that i have already written about this sometime in the past, but it keeps coming up for me...

i met someone several years ago that said "the secret to happiness is....

                  ....to not take things personally"

and even though i know this, and i can quote it frequently, it's still not that easy to do. like a reflex, we take un-returned phone calls, people's bad moods, preferences, choices and choice of words personally.

from the moment we are born we are slowly learning how to expand our world view; to create a perspective that goes beyond our lens.

babies only know their own desires - slowly they develop a sense of "other". they come to understand that when they themselves close their eyes, the world does not actually go away, just their view of it.

it isn't until college or sometime after that we start to see our parents as people and not exclusively as our parents.

and for some of us, it is a life-long process to accept that even though something feels personal, it doesn't mean that it is, and maybe if i keep reminding myself, i will come to understand it in a way that doesn't require me to quote the phrase.