Got Turkeys?

You know, as a kid, our family moved all the time. I had to change schools and make new friends almost every year, for about 5 years in a row, at one point.

As a young adult, i suffered through my parents getting a divorce.

With the birth of my first child, I learned that I was never going to have another. I was never going to be able to have those three girls I thought were in my future… Katie, Leah and Maggie. Yes, I had the names picked out.

I was the victim of both an assault and a sexual assault in the past. I knew, loved, and lost all four of my grandparents. I have had jobs and bosses that reduced me to tears.

I have had a dislocated clavicle, a dislocated shoulder, even a dislocated hip. I have torn a rotator cuff twice, broken my nose three times, and had countless other broken bones, cuts, scrapes, and trips to the emergency room.

And you know what? I have NOT suffered any more in this life, than anyone else. My pain has been no more, or no less, real than any other person's. It has been no greater and no less.

There had been this saying, in the 70's and 80's… Don't let the turkeys get you down. This was Boynton, to be fair. And it's something my Grandma, God bless her soul, used to tell me.

But this silly idea, the funny saying, has a deeper meaning for me.

Every time someone is mean to you, disrespects you, insults you, tries to crush your dreams -- respond with kindness. When someone tries intentionally to hurt you, be it physical, financial, emotional, whatever -- it is OK to hurt a little. But don't let them know it!

Don't let the pain of life, harden your heart. Don't let the meanness of small-minded people, make you stop trusting. Don't' wear your hurt as a badge. Don't disengage.

I know, this sounds so great as advice, but who can really follow it themselves, when the chips are down? When life is sucking at it's hardest?

If you ALLOW yourself to become hard, closed-off, disillusioned, cynical, or wary of people… Then the TURKEYS have won! Misery, it is said, loves company. How can you let them do that to you!

So, the next time life throws you a curveball, gets you down, hands you lemons… Look it right back in the eye and say "Is that all you got?". If you have someone who loves you, your health, and even maybe children to treasure… DO NOT let the turkeys win!