Greetings wonderful @ladiesofhive, it's me Iris from East Java, Indonesia. It's been a while, perhaps I am experiencing writer blog because so much going on recently. So to fuel my spirit, I decided to share my thoughts on this week contest. As usual, another interesting prompts from @trucklife-family and I will answer the first question:
What are the top three values that guide your major life decisions and which value do you find the most challenging to practice consistently?
This challenge make me reflect quite a bit on my life so far. Honestly I never really decided that these three answers are the true values that I live by, but these are things that guide me so far and what I wish to teach my son as well.
My top value will be "Choose Kindness". I am not 100% a kind person but I tried so hard to be. The main reason is because I didn't do well with negative emotions. It really affected my days and made me feel bad. I always thought that if humankind were a little bit kinder to each other, we will live in much more beautiful place.
It doesn't have to be anything big actually, just a gentle words when somebody need to hear that. A sincere smile and politeness, a surpresed urge to make someone else suffers might be enough to brighten someone's day.
Of course, there were many times that my emotions get out of control, but after that I always feel worse and guilty. So, I tried to avoid the miserable feeling by treating someone badly just because he/she didn't treat me well. That would double the annoyance. And also, it makes me feel better to be kind. So before I made any decision, I used to think which way will be better for any party involved, and that would save me a good night sleep.
The second is to try not taking anything more than necessary. I always thought that greed is the main source of unhappiness. We are just a grain of sands in this vast universe, and really our life span is just a blink of an eye in reality. So, I tried so hard to preserve my environment to care for the nature, to not disturb the circle of life. And, it is very challenging, because we are so used to do anything in easy way.
So I tried to make habbit to preserve things, to repair and reuse so we can help to reduce waste even if I still long way to go. I teach my son not to kill bugs or any small animal around us, because they just mere existing. Someday, I hope I can grow my own food and that is my far away dream. I try to coexist with nature surround me and be content with what I have now.
And the last but not least is to help each other if possible. All my life I have been receiving helps from strangers. Like when I got lost, forgot to bring small changes, got flat tire and whenever possible I will always try to help stranger in distress. I didn't meant to sound like a vigilante or such a heroic main character. I am not. I am still so much selfish and coward sometimes, but if I could spare my time and my energy I will chose to help.
Doesn't have to be anything big, but I try to care about people around me and anyone that I met along the way. Because I think it takes courage to ask for help, so I try to appreciate the effort and offers a hand if possible. Of course, this decision sometimes made my life a little bit complicated more than necessary, but it was already a mess after all lol.
Well, if we talk about the hardest value to live by myself is the first one, because I am just flawed humans. Sometimes I harbor grudge, I judge people, and I overthink and those often make it hard to be kind. And I really hate this version of me, that's why I am trying to be kind as much as I can, because it is important for me and really make me fell better. Perhaps, someday this world will bring us more happy news rather than the depressing one if people can choose kindness over anything else.
Thank you for reading my kind of rant. I will make sure to stop by and reading interesting POV from you to ladies. Cheers!