dont hate the player. hate the game.

via Zoe Scaman

I don't really believe in choosing hate. Its such a strong word. Nevertheless there are situations that can really trigger the anger within a person.

Have you ever felt that feeling of intense, frustrating anger at someone or something because, for example:

a.) You're not getting your own way, or

b.) Someone is saying all the right things to push your buttons so you're impermanent personality is being severely offended, or

c.) I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT I HATE THE WORLD RIGHT NOOOOW!!!

Hate tickles all the wrong places and often by all the wrong people. The people you want to love sometimes, behaving like naughty children, like little angels equipped with heartbreak bows and arrows nakedly and innocently stabbing you in all the painful spots while fluttering along unawares. Naughty angels they are and that lovely English idiom "Don't shoot the messenger" really sings true sometimes.

Life does not come with a remote. It cannot always be controlled. Our reactions however can be as can who we choose to engage with.

When hate comes knocking at the door, I've tried taking a big step back from the situation. I might slip in to my wee anarchistic-revolutionary-onesy and realise that rubbish behaviour is rather consequential to a crazily out of balance world, bad upbringing or unconsciousness. This world that has taught us to think in foolish ways. To compare. To be greedy. To want more. To compete. Sure sometimes its important to say "dude, that's not cool, turn round 3 times and take what you said back" while also knowing when to walk away compassionately because someone who's on Team Hate must be really suffering. And hate sometimes arises because it's showing you a side to yourself that is truly vulnerable. That needs working on. That is less emotionally developed.

“That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult, and love my enemy…. these are great virtues. But what if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the enemy who must be loved? What then?” ~Carl Jung

I think there's power in doing something about the madness in this world we live in and channeling those annoyed feelings about it towards that. We are co-creators. We all have to accept responsibility for what society has created and can at least try, a little, to do something to change it in my opinion as much as we can to self-improve and take responsibility for our life and our darker emotions.