I Wish ______ Were Different

I was making oobleck with my nieces and nephews. My niece said, so disappointedly, “I wish it was more like slime.” 🙂 Obviously it’s not going to be like slime, because it’s not slime, it’s oobleck.

We do this exact thing with people so often. “I wish my husband cared about being on-time like I do.” Of course he doesn’t! He’s not me, he’s him. “I wish my sister would take charge at family functions like my friend’s sister does.” Of course she doesn’t. Your sister and your sister’s friend are completely unique people.

Whenever we wish someone were different than they are, we will be disappointed. Of course, people change and can become a different version of themselves, so we can make requests of people to change certain things. But if we tie our emotions to whether or not they change, we’ll almost always be disappointed. They can act however they always do. I get to decide how I want to think, feel, and act when they do.

Thursday I’ll share a thought that can help with this.