Suffering Spilling Over

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”

― Thích Nhất Hạnh

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it was a bad moment

the words hurt

the attitude hurt

the behavior infuriated

I felt small

And rejected

and all those old thoughts

of “I am not enough”

surfaced

I wanted to strike back

I wanted to find a way

to diminish them, the way they had diminished me

and then the thought came

fleeting and weak

and then it came again

“how would I have to feel, to behave that like?”

“how have I felt, when I have behaved like that?”

(for I have had moments when I behaved, badly)

and in a moment

in the twinkling of an eye

all was changed

I saw suffering spilling over

 

(and tried very hard not to pass it on)