I heard that saying time and again from my mom. She loved collecting sayings and injecting them into life as little tidbits of trial and error, teaching me of the world in her own way I suppose. I didn't understand half of them when I was small as she never took the time to explain them to me.
Perhaps she knew somewhere later down the road they'd make sense, that my own failures, successes and everything in between the two sides of that pendulum swing would explain them on their own. She wasn't wrong and it's a good thing she used them frequently as if she had to drill them into my memory like a sergeant shaping up a soldier for the battlefield.
I was reminded of this one today which I titled my post after
"No good deed goes unpunished" and it's always been a bit of a quandary because in my naivety in my younger years I thought "why would you get punished for something good?"
But life does that sometimes. Sometimes you get great things from good deeds. You get to feel good. Sometimes you get the opposite. This happened to me today and all things considered, I was proud of how I handled it.
The last while I've been taking a lady out in my car and giving her a few driving lessons. She's a bright woman and I knew she'd pick it up quickly. Even though my mind wasn't really in the best place, I had diarised some time with her. We drove down the road and she was doing so well. Then we turned the corner and while straightening out the wheel, she started to panic and she slammed her foot on what she thought was the brake pedal as anyone would do wanting to stop the car.
It wasn't the brake pedal though, was it?
Nope.
It was the accelerator. And so we went careening at the top range of first gear, straight into a fucking wall.
You know what I did? I asked her "are you ok?" I wasn't worried about any of the other stuff because a wall is a wall, a car is a car. Not breathing, not living, not feeling beings. She was fine. No damage, but understandably, a little bit shaken up. I was relieved. That was all that mattered in that moment - that she was ok.
But I could hear my mom's words ringing in my head as I extricated my car.
I could see her face in a cynical scowl as she shook her head disapprovingly of me.
I decided to laugh at that memory of her, because I realised that I have outgrown her "mould".
My mom was the greatest cynic that every graced this planet lol, yet I saw endless number of selfless acts come from her. Things that my sister and I still talk about to this day. Our mom was the biggest contradiction. She was insanely physically strong for her physique and she was rough around the edges. She was neurotic as all hell about almost everything and her sense of humour was almost non existent, yet she was capable of showing so much love, care and attention. I can remember when I was very young, she was almost always on the floor with me, rolling around marbles, playing board games or chasing the few pull back cars we had collected.
I pulled back my car this time, in real life and a few hours later I repainted the wall where my car's paint now decorated it. I will repaint my car, I will sand down my bumper and fix up the damage. I will hold no grudges either. It was an accident and they happen.
It's funny to look back now at what she thought she was trying to teach me, it has shaped me in ways obviously, but I've also overcome so much of what she tried to imprint on me that would have held me back.
Perhaps it's lessons like these that I need to pass on to my nieces and nephews instead of things filled with bitterness and disillusionment. I prefer to believe that there's still good in the world because I know it to be true. I think some people just choose to no longer see it and I couldn't think of a sadder existence than to only see the darkness when you've personally shrouded out the light or refused to acknowledge it.
The track below my sister sent to me a few days ago and it seems synchronistic listening to it now, perhaps this was the lesson I needed this week, not just to grow, but to realise just how much I already have.
There's good in the world, I believe it and work towards finding it as often as possible, usually in small things. I believe the opportunity to find it increases if one can avoid the bad or negative things however it is very difficult to do so when society is geared towards it. From the media and its propaganda, the way women are body-shamed, men are not allowed to be men, people committing atrocities in the name of their "religion", to pharma's and government agendas, rogue states...I could go on. I believe people have to make an active effort to find the good, valuable and beautiful things in life...beauty like you.
I see your light, and it's bright...but light creates shadow so that's there too, like with all of us, myself included. Understanding we have both is important, as is the choice to lean one way or the other - mindset.
I'm sorry about your car; yes, just a car (and wall), but it's your car. You seem to have taken it well...I know someone who would not have taken it so well, but he would have gotten over it I guess, possibly. You've done well and I hope the fix goes smoothly.
Hi Becca. Thanks for swinging past and leaving such a thoughtful comment, I always enjoy reading them.
Yes, absolutely there is a lot of crap going on in the world (always is I suppose) and it's sometimes very difficult to see past that - again, perspective is a good thing and my car's wall rash is very small in comparison to many things I've experienced, maybe that's why I could shrug it off a little easier than some.
There is always a bright side to every misfortune - I got to meet some of the neighbours 🤣
Between the crack in the windscreen from the truck and this wall scrape, the poor thing is getting wrecked faster than I'm fixing it.
I hope you are well Becca.
🦋 Em
This made me think about myself. The scrapes, cuts and bruises and how I work towards fixing them.
Becca 🌷
😕 I'm sorry Becca, considering what you are going through at the moment I understand that and can sympathize. Keep your chin up and keep looking towards the sun - you reflect it's rays beautifully into the world.
I have never heard this saying, but yes, could say that life sometimes arranges things that this feeling can happen. Of course, you reacted well yesterday, a car is just a car. The great thing is when we see that we overcome bitterness, and get the things from the other side, from the light 😉
So true, I think that these things test our limits sometimes but overcoming the usual response of anger at the situation is a wonderful feeling. Everyone was ok, that's what truly mattered. Everything else is fixable 🙂
Thanks so much for coming around @mipiano, I'm glad you now learned a new saying as well. I have a few of them rumbling around in my noggin.
Stay well
🦋 Em
The women in your family seem to be pretty wise. You are a good person and I love to hear how you dealt with a situation that would probably stress a lot of other people out majorly.
Great real life story
💪♥️
Hey Vincent. Thanks for coming round. Yes I think my mom saw enough of life to become wise to the world, but I hate that it made her so cold in some aspects. Thank you, I try to be a good person, I can see why my mom was like that now, I think it's sometimes hard to be a good person in spite of all the negative crap that happens.
Nobody was hurt and the car still drives ok, is fixable so it's all good - these things happen.
Hope you are well my dino friend. I started reading Hypersensitivosaurus & Cold Turkey to my niece. It was hilarious. We are only through chapter 1, but she's enjoying it and loves the illustrations.
These kind of comments mean a lot of me, there's so many people ( including my own family members ) who don't even let me know how they like my book but those who do, seem to like it.
Also, kids ( like your niece ) enjoying it makes me even happier!
I have no doubt that she would enjoy 'The Monster of Disco' too.
Big friendly monster hug!
Of course I would tell you, I enjoyed it so knew she would as well. I think I'll read the next chapter the next time she's with me.
Big hugs to you too Vincent, hope you had a good weekend!
It is very annoying and sad when I do good and I don't get rewarded with something good but the other way round but I'm glad that you have wonderful people in your live.
That's a good one!
I think these things happen, life is fluid and there's no way to always get good stuff to happen even if you always are on the right side of people. It certainly doesn't mean that we should just become bad people though, I think there are enough of those in the world already. Thanks for your comment.
Your Mum really got that lesson to stick into you. It's nice you could control yourself at that instance, and best is that you didn't struggle with it, no grudges afterwards.
Nice lesson for everyone. Thanks for sharing ❤️
Hi @stevewealth, thanks for reading my post. There are always going to be situations and circumstances that we don't like, didn't anticipate and have to work through, but how we deal with them in the moment is what counts and this was a small blip on the radar compared to what could have happened, luckily no real damage was done. Have a great day and upcoming weekend.
Same to you. Thank you
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