Sometimes, people I don’t know send me random bits of thoughts, advice, memes, or links because of this blog. They are at times useful and topical. I appreciate them. It is easy to focus on the hard cases and mean people.

After a couple of recent posts, someone sent me this: “…an unhealed person will find offense in almost anything someone does. A healed person understands that the actions of other people have absolutely nothing to do with them.” They added, “Time spent trying to understand the first type of person is wasted time. Get away from them as fast as you can and do your introspection away from their claws and influence.”

They went on to say that all of us fluctuate between the extremes – and that the closer we are to being healed, our response to angry or bitter people lessens, usually because we know that empty space is the best healing agent at our disposal.

Hours later, I received another message: “The sooner you pay the price for anything, the less you pay. You know this because you’ve written about it often. Of all the things you’ve written about, I think one of the best ways we can protect ourselves and children is to teach them all from an early age to get away from anger, addiction, control, and toxic people. They won’t change until they are ready. If enough people shun them, they’ll change or spiral to the bottom more quickly. Few people successfully change but those who did hit rock bottom at terminal velocity before figuring out they can’t be that way around good people. The world has a lot of bad people but it also has many great ones. Choose the great ones. They’ll fill your life in such a way you’ll never notice the absence of those who chose the other way to live. Peace. And keep writing.”