Buddha (may or may noy have-its controversial) once said, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” I am a strong believer in this statement. For as long as I can remember, I have never been able to hold a grudge. The longest timeframe that I have ever been upset with a person was twenty hours. I counted back the hours because at the time, I realized that the anger was not worth it. Being angered by people’s thoughts and actions is a frustrating thing, and in my opinion is not worth any of the stress. Anger is a poison to the body, and causes more stress and pain to yourself than to the person you are upset with. As a relatively positive person, I have managed to stay as happy and grateful as I can no matter the circumstance. However, I was not always this way.
As a toddler I would get easily frustrated with the smallest things. When I would get upset I would begin having labored breaths, and my chest would tighten. Sweat would begin beading down my face, and my little fists would contract and expand periodically. The smallest things could set me off, such as not being able to listen to my own cassettes in the car on the way home from church, or rainy days when I would want to play outside. Bed times and naps made me want to pull my hair out. Controlled and healthy snack alternatives would make me zip my lips tight and had me throwing away the imaginary key to the lock that secured my lips against the unnaturally orange carrots.
On a different note, my grandfather on my mothers’ side was my babysitter/partner in crime/best friend as a child and he could bake the best sugar cookies on the planet. I kid you not. I always loved having them, and whenever I spent the day with my grandfather, we had to bake sugar cookies. Days spent with him were always good days, and I loved listening to his stories he would make up about grand princesses and strong princes in far off lands. My grandfather had been diagnosed with a severe form of diabetes and had several heart attacks and seizures as I was a child, and he was told to stay away from all unhealthy snacks and things with high sugary content. My mother soon turned into a mother bear and would carefully watch over my grandfathers’ diet, because she was frightened she would lose her father. As a child, I did not understand their conversations fully and never realized that my grandfather stopped baking and eating snacks because he was not allowed to eat these things. I would throw the biggest tantrums for his cookies, and generally he would give into my constant bickering and give in to his cravings for sugar. We would bake, and in the end my mother was always upset with my grandfather for eating sugar, and I was told that sugar was bad for Poppy (that was my nickname for him). I did not understand how sugar could be bad at that age, because it tasted so good. I constantly craved the way that the cookies practically melted in my mouth after being taken out of the oven. I did not mind a temporarily scorched tongue if it meant getting my grubby hands onto those cookies as soon as I could.
One Sunday evening, Mommy and Daddy had a church meeting to attend to after the main service, so Poppy was in charge of me for the evening. He took me home, and was asked to take care of me for the day. I begged, screamed, twisted, and shouted for the heavenly cookies that I had not had in what seemed like ages to my childish mind, but Poppy did not budge. “The answer was, is, and will forever remain to be no, pumpkin.” He calmly spoke to me. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that my Poppy had said no to the cookies. I remember my chest beginning to feel tight, the labored breathing, and the light headedness that came afterwards as if it was yesterday. Hot tears streamed down my chubby face, my bottom chin popped out, and my lower lip accentuated until I had a full on pout formed. ‘No’ just was not in my vocabulary, at least not for that day. I became so upset with my Poppy and my chest began to hurt so badly that I could not bear to see his face any longer. I shouted at the top of my lungs, “I HATE YOU!” I ran up my stairs and locked myself in my room for the remainder of the day and did not bother to come out until the next morning. That next morning my mom received a phone call at 7 AM. My poppy had gotten a heart attack at about 6:20 that morning and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:54 AM. Help was not reached in time to heal him.
The last thing I said to my poppy was that I hated him. I will always remember that. The fury I felt over something as trivial as cookies makes me so frustrated with myself, because in the end I only upset myself more. Being angry with people does not hurt them nearly as much as it hurts you. People are not always out looking for intentional ways to upset you, and in fact most humans nowadays only seek acceptance from others. Whenever I am upset with someone, I always try and look through their eyes to see where they are coming from and what made them do such a thing to upset me. The girl who called me a mean name? She had been abused at home and the only way she could uplift herself was by putting others down. The boy who did not like me in the seventh grade? His mother walked out on him as a child, and he has not trusted women since. People constantly think that the only opinion that is right is their own, and if someone upsets them that person should disappear forever and feel incredibly horrible about upsetting you. In reality, we should try to realize why they are thinking the way that they do. Being upset with a person does you no good. Forgiveness is always the answer, because you may not realize it at the time, but people generally get upset over the most trivial things that they will not remember anything about twenty years from now. The anger you feel for a person is not nearly as strong as the anger they had for you when they did whatever it is they did to upset you.
Anger poisons your body and never makes the other person feel any less sympathetic about what they did. It only makes you worry more about the past things that you can do nothing about. “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” It has been twelve years since my Poppy passed away, and no matter who actually said it, I am still a strong believer in that statement.
This isn't really a poem. I just needed to let this out somewhere. Thank you for reading, who ever you are.
