Every adult you meet was once a scared kid. Treat people like their younger selves are still listening.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Nobody outgrows the kid they were, it just gets covered over with competence. The person being short with you at a counter or across a classroom still has a nervous twelve-year-old in there somewhere, and sharp words land on that part too. Remembering it makes people much easier to be patient with.
Pick somebody who irritates you and picture them at nine years old. Then say what you were going to say, adjusted for who is actually listening.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which adult would look different if you pictured them at ten?
MORE IN TIME, MORTALITY & LEGACY
- Ever read the names on park benches? Somebody loved those people enough to give strangers a place to sit.
- You’ll sell your first car someday and feel weird about it. Things hold the years we spent with them.
- A kid who watches you cook learns more than a recipe. They learn that feeding people is how you love them.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.