Little by little, what I say every day is beginning to sink in and become a part of you. Oh, yes, offense-producing annoying situations and people still arise. How can this happen, yet it does. And you may still feel strongly that you want to retaliate in kind. You may want to tell off some people. You may want to tell them how rude and inconsiderate and unintelligent they are. You are sure of it, and yet you pause, and yet you refrain and you find mulling within you a greater consideration and understanding, and, yes, even compassion. You find you don't want to set them straight anymore. You don't want to hurt them back. You are not so steamed up anymore. They said what they said or did what they did. That hasn't changed, yet your resentment has flagged. You have gotten past the insult.

John is John. Joe is Joe. Jane is Jane. Eloise is Eloise. You may even ask yourself why would you even let what they say bother you. They haven't changed. They may never change, but you have changed. A greater more benevolent feeling has arisen in you.

Perhaps, if you think of people as you do beloved animals, for instance, you will find yourself more resilient and less adamantine about someone else's words or actions. You don't object because a poodle is not a collie. You accept the nature of various breeds. You are not upset because one dog is different from another. You are not upset if one dog comes up to be petted and another does not. You have equanimity when it comes to acceptance of traits in other species. You accept that this is just how it is. You don't try to shorten a giraffe's neck. You don't try to turn a rhino into a gazelle.

Some people always say the right thing, which, from your point of view, is that which nourishes you. Others, it may seem, always say the wrong thing, which is that which makes you uncomfortable. As right as you may be, others also take their rightness for granted. What you really don't like is that they may very well be trying to change you. They would like you to be according to their likes. They have no right to transform, nor have you the right to attempt to transform, anyone else. They seem to see through blue eyes while you see through brown.

Right now your heart is meeting their hearts in a better place. When you are feeling better about something, you can be sure that the other party is also. Your heart relaxed, and now theirs can too. No longer are they despicable for having talked to you the way they did or whatever it was that ticked you off. You let go of it, beloved. You let go of offense. What a lovely thing to let go of! What a lovely thing to be finished with.

Perhaps it even occurs to you that you may have offended others, perhaps many more than you are aware of, and many of them shrugged off an offense from you. They didn't tell you all about it and what you could have and should have said or done. They walked past offense, and now you are too.

You are too good now to nitpick over others' way of being. You are really stepping out of the past. How good that feels. You may even smile at those who offended you. You may even be glad to see them, and find that, despite their obstacles, they really like you too. When you once saw animosity, you no longer do. It is like the sun and the moon eclipsed hard feelings in your heart, and now you love knowing that the person in front of you no longer has a say about the grand eloquence of your heart.