in as little words

In 1888, Almon Brown Stronger, an undertaker, noticed he was losing a lot of business to the other undertaker in his town. He found out that the other undertaker’s wife was a telephone operator. When she intercepted people asking to be connected to Stronger’s funeral home, the operator would route the call to her husband’s funeral home instead.

First we feel. Then we fall.

Your affection for others can cause you to turn yourself into a stranger. They like your hair straight, so you straighten it. They think your genuine laugh is too obnoxious, so you tone it down at dinners and parties. They think you’re too much of a softie, so you hide your tears when they say something negative about you and pretend to have thicker skin than what’s really there. Before you know it, you’ve altered so much of yourself that you don’t even know who the hell you are anymore. Take a stand. Whoever ‘they’ may be to you, be aware of how much you’re compromising for them. If you can no longer breathe the same way around them, it’s time to show them the door.

You’re not a morning person until you wake up next to the love of your life and watch them open their eyes to start another day with you; then all of a sudden you realize how much it pleases you to rise and be greeted by a soul brighter than the sun.