c:

I think I’m going to use all of the slights, the insults, the abuse, and the contempt/hatred I received from other people throughout the course of my life, I’m gonna use it to focus more on serving my community via the kinds of work I like to do; I’m gonna use it for strengthening my relationship with god; and I’ll use it for truly deepening my quietude and my non-aggression principle and frame of mind. I think you can use the negative energy you get from others to create a net positive for yourself, and for the world around you. It seems that you can either be sad, angry, and confused about it; or you can use it as a means for growth and for moving forward with your own life. It truly is difficult, it’s hard when you’re being bullied and mistreated by others. But you’re not the one engaging in the abuse, for one thing–it’s their own problem. (I think Frederick Douglass once said something like “No one can disgrace or degrade me. They only degrade themselves when they deal with me in such negative ways.” I think this statement was in response to a particular case of racial discrimination he had experienced. He mentioned this assertion to his friend after the friend said that he had perceived the incident as degrading and intolerable—he perceived the racial discrimination that Douglass had endured as degrading and intolerable.) | I feel that you can use negative energy to create more positive energy, somehow. It’s difficult to see the goodness in the suffering while you’re still in it, but things often become clearer after the fact. You often think ‘oh, I see why that happened. Such-and-such trait and level of understanding is what I need to look into at this moment, I guess.’ Life is suffering, alhamdulillah. It’s all good, it’s ok.