It’s frustrating when people cast our traits and behaviors in the worst possible light.  We feel misunderstood.  Goodwill and benevolent intentions fall on deaf ears.  Things are taken out of context.  Positive qualities are glossed over.  Mistakes are magnified, and successes are misinterpreted.

Take a moment to recall how awful this feels.  Have you also noticed that when someone sees the worst in you, it brings it out?  How people see us shapes us in such subtle, insidious ways, that we rarely understand that it’s happening.  We might even come to think that the qualities the other person sees represent our true nature.  Their eyes become our mirror.  We think we are seeing ourselves reflected, and the self morphs to match the self-image.

In the midst of such frustration, I have lamented to myself, “Why won’t you see the best in me?  If you would only see the best in me, this flower bud could open.  All the bad things you think you see, well, you’re wrong… that’s not me… it’s my reaction to how you see me.”

This morning it occurred to me that the same applies to the universe.  Am I seeing the best in everything around me?

There have been times, I’m sure, when the universe should have felt sorely misunderstood by me.

Its good intentions fell on my deaf ears, events were taken out of context, and the positive glossed over.  Today, dear Universe, I will see the best in you.