GOSSIP
I am trying hard to do just a little reading before I lay down for bed ... seems it's the only time I can do such things these days. Last night was no exception -- I cuddled under the covers to read a bit of my GLAMOUR magazine (I said read, not try to solve world peace). There was an article about gossip, which seems counter-intuitive, considering it's GLAMOUR. However, the article really hit me ...
The woman writing described her 20s and 30s, how those years were laced with gossip-mongering, but, how when she entered her 40s, she suddenly saw the destructive nature of the gossip, and too, she realized that the very things she was gossiping about in others were things that were very ugly in her own life.
Boy! Can I ever relate!?
Three years ago, I was convicted of my role in gossip. There have been times I've been knee-deep (or deeper) in it. Other times, I have just been on the periphery. Three years ago, after being accused of saying something I really didn't, I stepped back and said, "Really? Number one, why do I care? Number two, what is it benefiting me to spread the ugliness?" It is, after all, ugliness.
There are people in my life, both professional and personal, that seem to have their entire beings wrapped up in gossip. It's as if their very breath would stop if they didn't have the opportunity to spread the latest and juiciest.
You know the type. You all hear something juicy ... not necessarily true. Just juicy. And before you can say BOO!, the gossiper is on his or her phone, texting or calling the news onward and upward. Witnessing enough of that, I began to realize that the very things that I disliked about the gossipers as people were the very things they were gossiping about.
The point of this article was that we as women should be about the business of edifying each other ... making each other the best we can be. Yet, most times, we spend our time attempting to tear each other down. For me, personally, it's frustrating.
To end the jagged circle of gossip, she suggests choosing one or two very close friends that you can go to and vent, but that the stories end with that one or those two people. NO. FURTHER. So, I am taking the words of this author, in the GLAMOUR magazine, of all places, and I am going to practice this particular brand of preaching.
I want to be about the business of POSITIVE. No more negative. Gossip is ugly, and I want no part of it anymore.
The woman writing described her 20s and 30s, how those years were laced with gossip-mongering, but, how when she entered her 40s, she suddenly saw the destructive nature of the gossip, and too, she realized that the very things she was gossiping about in others were things that were very ugly in her own life.
Boy! Can I ever relate!?
Three years ago, I was convicted of my role in gossip. There have been times I've been knee-deep (or deeper) in it. Other times, I have just been on the periphery. Three years ago, after being accused of saying something I really didn't, I stepped back and said, "Really? Number one, why do I care? Number two, what is it benefiting me to spread the ugliness?" It is, after all, ugliness.
There are people in my life, both professional and personal, that seem to have their entire beings wrapped up in gossip. It's as if their very breath would stop if they didn't have the opportunity to spread the latest and juiciest.
You know the type. You all hear something juicy ... not necessarily true. Just juicy. And before you can say BOO!, the gossiper is on his or her phone, texting or calling the news onward and upward. Witnessing enough of that, I began to realize that the very things that I disliked about the gossipers as people were the very things they were gossiping about.
The point of this article was that we as women should be about the business of edifying each other ... making each other the best we can be. Yet, most times, we spend our time attempting to tear each other down. For me, personally, it's frustrating.
To end the jagged circle of gossip, she suggests choosing one or two very close friends that you can go to and vent, but that the stories end with that one or those two people. NO. FURTHER. So, I am taking the words of this author, in the GLAMOUR magazine, of all places, and I am going to practice this particular brand of preaching.
I want to be about the business of POSITIVE. No more negative. Gossip is ugly, and I want no part of it anymore.
Comments