Blog #606: The Words Felt Like Blisters

We don’t HAVE to.
Anymore.

(Read on…and the words will make sense.)

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This is blog #606.

Over MANY years…

Extra Mile Thursday has grown from an original 100+ readers to thousands today. MANY readers have come and gone …and MANY readers continue to sign up for their very first issue.

STILL…

I feel a positive rush every week when new subscribers join.

It’s the same positive rush I received years ago when Subscriber #1 joined.

A humble thank you to everyone who reads this blog.

______

Ever since blog #1…

I have always answered EVERY person who writes to me.

I feel lucky that people read my words, and I feel even luckier that my words have made a difference. When people respond positively to a blog, it’s a jolt of electric life to my spirit.

For me…

Writing back is an uplifting privilege.

BUT…

Not always.

______

Sometimes…

I’ve been in total cringe mode writing back. I’ve run into a few regular readers who are quite passionate about spitting on my words.

Even still…

In responding to those readers, I have stuck to being ME.

I write back with humility and grace.

Until recently.

______

The nasty email came while I was in Scotland.

I’d just landed and was spending my first night in Glasgow.

I would start walking my first day in the morning.

While in my Airbnb that night, I opened email responses to my latest blog.

My inbox was rich with energy and inspiration from tens of well-wishers.

Except for one.

It was an extra familiar email address.

I knew this person’s words well.

Before I even opened the email…

I braced myself for the “word cobra” that I KNEW was waiting to strike.

And it DID.

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What did the email read?

The longtime reader had turned my recent blog…political.

The reader jumped to an angry conclusion that the person I was supporting for U.S. President must be different than who they were passionately supporting.

Without splashing the details of the person’s exact words…

a small portion of the email politely translates into this:

If you support MY Presidential candidate, I wish you good health as you walk. But if you support the other guy…I wish you pain as you walk across Scotland.

These were the exact words:

“I wish you pain.”

The words felt like blisters throughout my 135-mile walk.

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Let’s jump back to the words at the TOP of this blog:

We don’t HAVE to.

Anymore.

My translation?

I don’t HAVE to.

Anymore.

I unsubscribed the reader from receiving future blogs.

I didn’t HAVE to let the “word cobra” bite me.

Anymore.

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We don’t HAVE to.

Let work control our lives.

Save a bad relationship.

Worry constantly.

Be a martyr.

We don’t HAVE to.

Live with negativity.

Be out of shape.

Be shy to speak.

Live with fear.

We don’t HAVE to.

Tell ourselves our wishes don’t matter.

Pretend we like what we don’t like.

Let people take advantage of us.

Keep taking arrows.

We don’t HAVE to do any of that.

Anymore.

______

That thought for me is…

Hopeful.

Freeing.

Empowering.

I don’t HAVE to.

Anymore.

And you know what?

YOU don’t HAVE to.

Either.

S.