Have you ever had your child, so full of hope
and light, come to you with a situation in which an adult did not practice
kindness? And instead of ranting with a colorful assortment
of 4-letter words, you come up with a brilliant bit of advice that just
sparkles in all of that muckiness?
The other day, Marie decided she wanted to
start a business and sell her drawings. Not one to crush that entrepreneurial
spirit, I told her to stay on our street
and to take her brother with her. This was the first time I let them leave the
yard without me – yikes
They returned with no art, a snack size zip
lock bag full of change, and their eyes twinkling with pride.
I was surprised when, days later, Marie talked
about a person who was not want to buy her art.
“You know,” she reflected, “there was only one
person who said he didn’t my want art.
He said that he had enough art and would not be needing anymore.”
She didn't look wounded, just puzzled as to how
someone would not feel compelled to want her creations.
I really only had one thing to say:
“Haters gonna hate. Makers gonna make.”
Marie said that she needed clarification, so I
added this, "Some people are not happy and are uncomfortable when other people's
happiness glows from within. They try to take the shininess away so everyone is
dull and unhappy like them- these people are the haters. But people who create
things because it makes them happy - these are the makers. And their glow
should never be dimmed. Haters gonna hate, and makers are going to make."
Soon after this, I had a run in with my own hater. This person did
not practice kindness when talking about my very first appearance on live TV. Because I was nervous to be on TV, I was
super proud of this moment; yet I could feel shame and doubt starting to snuff
out my light. And to make matters worse,
this happened in front of my kids. I
think the universe was testing me to see if I was listening to my babbling
attempts to instill wisdom into my child.
I was listening because that’s when it hit me – I am a maker. I make things with love. Haters are not down with that. Ever.
And then I remembered Marie’s reaction to her hater.
Marie looked at her hater with confusion because she could not
fathom how somebody would not want a
drawing that she loved so much. She was
not second-guessing if her drawings were good.
She wasn’t looking for validation; she was looking to share. Her light remained bright in the shadows of
the hater.
That’s when I decided that I
was not going to allow myself to feel small.
I was not going to let my light dim.
I *can’t* let my light dim. If
there is one thing I hate more than a hater, it’s a hypocrite.
So I may choose to hang this in my office, my bathroom, maybe even
tattoo it to my wrist, but I have to remember this when people are mean.
