Ouch! you stepped on my feeling toe!

You who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by. CSN had it goin’ on with those lyrics. And not only that, but that whole learn from your mistakes thing is a great idea for today. The cards are: Page of Swords, Hierophant, and Six of Cups. So, today is going to be about editing, self-editing. Have you learned from the last bit of chaos that swept through your life? If so, what did you learn? Figure it out. Write it down. Learn from it. If you didn’t learn, then that exact same set of crud is going to seep into your life like a flooding basement. It’ll come on little cat feet, and it will kick your butt. So, take the time today, be that person who steps back and looks at past errors and then learns from them.

Some of this stuff we were supposed to have learned when we were kids. “If you borrow it, give it back.” “If you took it out, put it away again.” If you stepped on someone’s toes, say you’re sorry, and if you hurt someone’s feelings, do the same. That last one was mine so it’s not a quote, but I find it oh so true. So often, if we hurt someone physically, say we step on someone’s toe, it’s absolutely easy to see we’ve done it and absolutely automatic to apologize. The apology is accepted and we all move on, acknowledging the accidental ouch. But, when we step on someone’s emotional toe (go with me, here) why then everything gets much tougher. For one thing, we don’t always know we’ve done it. Most of the time, when we physically step on someone’s toe, we get an indication. We get an, “Ouch!” The same doesn’t hold true for feelings. I believe most of us haven’t been taught that it’s okay to express those feelings as immediately as an “Ouch!” But oh a more honest world we’d live in if we did.

So, I’m giving you a three-part mission today. First, learn from your mistakes. Second, if you step on someone’s emotional toe, say you’re sorry. Third, and this is the biggie, if someone steps on yours, don’t brush it off. Don’t bury it. Instead, say, “Ouch! that hurt,” and see where it gets you. The people who love you will want to know and will want to honor your feelings, and likely apologize. The people who don’t want to acknowledge that they’ve hurt you, well, then you have a ton more information about them than you did just seconds before. And that brings us right back to learning from our mistakes. Are you in a pattern where your feelings aren’t being respected? If so, your mission becomes more and more clear. Today will be the day to stand up for yourself and do something about it. It might hurt some in the moment, but boy will be better for you in the long run.