Are You the Light That Shines in Someone’s Darkness?

There's someone in my life who I love very much and whenever they call I drop everything or rearrange my schedule when they need me to be with them, but the same isn't true when it's me who needs them.

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Trying to get this person to give me even just a few minutes of their time is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree and although I don't do things for people with the expectation of anything in return, this particular person and their inability to give me any time when I genuinely need them had been eating away at me.

I'd been harboring feelings of hurt and even anger, but then I ran across this anonymous quote and it completely transformed my way of thinking.

The quote I found reads,

Don't feel bad if people remember you only when they need you. Feel privileged that you are like a candle that comes to their mind when there is darkness.

I was so stunned by this quote that I couldn't stop reading it. Over and over. I mean, obsessively. I'm so used to seeing and hearing so many negative and snarky things that I don't think I was completely prepared to see something that would grab my heart and really make me mull things over.

This quote most definitely put everything into perspective for me and I think it should serve as a reminder to all of us that we should try to see things from a different angle rather than be quick to get up in arms and shut people out of our lives in anger because they don't pay us as much attention as we think they should.

I'm not, in any way, suggesting that it's acceptable to allow someone to mistreat you or that this way of thinking should be used to justify bad behavior. I wholeheartedly believe that people need to be held accountable for their actions. However, I believe the way we react to situations in our lives says a lot about us. When someone hurts our feelings by not giving us their time, we can lash out and shut them out, or we can keep a positive attitude and be the bigger person.

Are you a light in someone's darkness? Maybe they reach out to you because you are the only light in their life. I think that's an incredible honor.