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When You See Crazy Coming… Cross The Street

When I first heard Iyanla Vazant make this statement, on one of the Oprah Winfrey shows, it was like a lightning rod striking, sending wisdom directly to my soul.  She didn’t have to repeat it for me to get it.  I understood it clearly the first time around.

“When you see crazy coming, cross the street.” What are your thoughts when you read this statement?  How does your mind embrace the word crazy?

I am sure many of us have seen or run into crazy at least once in our lives.  It might have been at work, in the grocery store, on the bus, at church or school, on the roadways, and so many other places.  There have even been days I have been home alone, and crazy still was in the house.  Some of you probably can relate to that comment, and some of you have no idea what I am talking about.

Keep on living!

There are many positive and negative definitions associated with that word crazy.  For purposes of our discussion today, I want to use: mentally deranged, insane, totally unsound, out in left field, loony, nutcase, weirdo, unusual, and bizarre.   I think it is interesting there are so many adjectives associated with this word, and as you see, they aren’t all provoking joy in one’s spirit.

Keeping all this in mind, I ask this question, “If you saw these states of crazy coming in your direction, why wouldn’t you “cross the street?”  Or even more personal, why DIDN’T you cross the street?

Through the years, I have asked myself this question so many times.

I have seen and been a participant in many situations that reeked of crazy.  I think the major issues with us as a woman is most of us don’t recognize crazy from afar.  I think we have to have it come close to us, before we really pick-up on the craziness.  That wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t stay or let it stay, TOO LONG.

This is true for our personal and business relationships.

There are several examples of this theory.  We take a job, and a few months later, we know it is not a good fit for us.  We tell everyone how awful it is, how crazy some co-workers are, and so on.

However, ten years later we are still there whining and complaining.

How about when we meet someone, and we soon find out they are not who we think they are, we stay in that relationship forever?  Some of us even marry this person.  We are nurturers.  We tend to hate to give up on people.  It still does not change that we often choose to live with craziness in our lives.

So what has all this taught me about not crossing the street when I saw crazy coming?  I have learned my self-esteem was not intact.  I am not feeling good about me.  I have forgotten who I am.  I have spent so much time taking care of others; I forgot to write my name on my appointment schedule.

READ MORE AT WOMEN’S VOICES MAGAZINE

Shirley T. Burke
Shirley T. Burkehttp://www.esteeminstitute.com/Home_Page.html
SHIRLEY T. Burke founded the Esteem Institute as a platform to offer transformational programs, classes and workshops to individuals and organizations who welcome personal and professional growth. In 2011, she was one of ten people to be named as an inaugural winner of the Boomer Magazine “It List.” She is a member of the National Speaker’s Association, President-Elect of National Speaker’s Association-VA Chapter and the ABWA -The River City Express Network and past-president of the Network of Enterprising Women.

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