Head Down, He Walked Away. he.was.mad.

As I was sitting on my back step, planner and pencil in hand,
I listened to the group of neighborhood children playing baseball in an adjacent yard. The breeze blew past and shooed the flies off of my sun tanned feet.  I looked down at my chipped bright pink nail polish {hmm, I should touch these up. Repainting just seems like too much work right now}.  Then I heard my daughter yell out in a very
compassionate tone “What’s wrong?  Are you going home?”   She sounded so sweet.

I looked up to see a neighbor boy walking, head down, straight towards home.  He.was.mad.  As I thought back a few minutes to what was going on, no one was being outwardly mean, but the other boys were making up their own rules as they went.   Maybe they were actual rules, I really don’t know.

My son and his buddy (the one walking away) just wanted to play.  They really weren’t that into the game, but they needed more players.

I called out to see if he was alright.  He peeked in my direction for a nanosecond, then put his head back down and kept walking home.

 I smiled because I’m proud that he doesn’t blow up in anger when things don’t go his way.  But then my smile disappeared as I wondered how HE felt inside.

Sure, it’s more convenient for everyone when we just walk away.  And surely it feels better than someone blowing up at us.  I think there is a middle ground somewhere though.  You can’t run and hide when you’re upset, and you can’t explode like a volcano.

If you live life ignoring your problems, the problems don’t really go away.  They’re still there, somewhere, maybe in the back of someone’s mind, maybe in someone’s heart.  Maybe still in your own?

Here’s to finding the middle ground in conflict resolution.  For all little kids out on the backyard ball fields and for all us adults navigating the battlefield of daily life.