Everyone Matters

To have one's individuality completely ignored is like being pushed quite out of life. Like being blown out as one blows out a light.
~Evelyn Scott


I love this quote. What it means to me is that everyone matters, and we all want to feel important, or needed. When we give attention to other people in our lives, then we will get attention, too. Take, for instance, blogs. Whenever I visit a blog and leave a comment, chances are high that the writer of that blog will visit mine. If I become a follower on their blog, then they, too, might follow mine. I was gone for a month-long sabbatical and when I got back, I was truly dismayed to find a colleague, who was also a friend, had completely obliterated me from her life. She took my name off her followers, and my other blog off her list. We are in a writing group on-line together that automatically sends e-mails to everyone on the list, and she invariably leaves me out. How does this make me feel? Horrible. Unloved. Small.


God, ourselves and the other person are blessed when another person respectfully recognizes our presence. Compliments help us grow. Being shunned makes us wither up. Does God want us to act that way to a fellow human being? I think not. So, as difficult as it may seem, I am doing the only thing I know to do (after, of course, I retaliated and removed her as a follower and took her blog off my blog list)- I am praying for her. Guess what? I no longer feel that ball of anger and resentment growing in the pit of my stomach. I no longer feel hurt and belittled. I will not let anyone blow out my candle today. And when I see this woman at the next writer's guild meeting, I will give her a sincere compliment.