I was recently hanging out with people who don’t do any self-reflection and continuously blame others for their own bad situations.

This brought me back to myself, many years ago, where I was in that same situation, making mistake after mistake and constantly blaming others. I didn’t even consider taking responsibility for my actions, or what I call “owning my shit.”

It is alarming for me to see people hurting one another like crazy and doing the same thing over and over. It’s watching a miserable mess. It’s watching craziness.

It truly was noticeable to me because I realized how far I have come and also how I surround myself with people who have my back, and have enough self-reflection not to cause myself or others misery.

When I see people being hurtful to one another it really causes me great pain.

I know they don’t have a clue about what they are doing. I see it and if I try in some way to speak to them about the hurtfulness, it goes right over their head. “Yuck! Let it go Sherri,” I tell myself. “They are crazy like you once were, and hopefully someday they will learn.”

They aren’t doing it on purpose, they are just swimming in ignorance.

If there is no self-reflection in one’s life, there’s no hope for any kind of change.

Many families from one generation to another, because of lack of self-reflection, have the same actions happen again and again through the generations. I know that in my family, my dad was never there for his wife or children and as a result his habits were passed on to his children. If I hadn’t learned how to self-reflect and work on improving myself many years ago, I would have continued on the same path as my father.

Life ain’t easy. But to be so full of ignorance that one hurts people over and over again is so very sad. The people I was with the other day who were so hurtful to one another are my teachers of what not to do in my life, even though they aren’t my friends. If I get hurt by someone in my life, they are also my teacher.

Because no one is perfect, no matter how much self-reflection you do, but to witness crazy like I did the other day—no thank you!

My wish for everyone is to wake up from swimming in ignorance.

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Assist. Ed: Linda Jockers/Ed: Brianna Bemel