As Thanksgiving quickly approaches.. I have been overwhelmed with gratitude. I mean.. crying tears of joy daily.... (and no I'm not going through the change of life.. I'm only 30!!) Most of instances small and in the forms of gifts.
My love language is gifts so nothing fills up my tank more quickly than giving or receiving of gifts....
.... but today was a pretty big one. I'm wrapping up a feature and the lead accountant has just been a bear to my friend and I (we're both assistant directors on the movie). She has been verbally abusive through email for 5 wks. And for 5 wks, my friend and I did not spew back the venom... In return - we showed her kindness.
... We believed that there must have been something so horrible in her life that made her this way.
But still.. it was hard. Of course my heart breaks for her.. but I'm human and sometimes.. it just p!ssed me off. The kinder we became, the more wrath we incurred.
Anyway - I'm wrapping up this week in the office and I notice that she is treating the production coordinator as awful as she treats me. Over the past 4 weeks, I knew it was going on.. but the accountant is kinda a b!tch to everyone.. I didn't realize she was worse to her!.
The coordinator and I start talking and I begin to realize that every time she gets yelled at, it's in regards to me and my department... so I ask her.
"are you being verbally abused because you are trying to protect me and my department?"
and her response was "yes".
And in that moment I just felt so inspired. So thankful. I have never met the production coordinator until this show. It's not like we are friends or have any intimate connection of any kind. We can't really hire each other.. or even recommend each other for work....
... and we probably won't speak again until we see each other on another show.
So it CAN be argued that there is no benefit for her to be a "whipping boy" for me.
Still she did.. and in 5 weeks she never once projected any of that abuse on us. Every wicked word spoken by the accountant was taken in and stored. All we ever saw was kindness.
It's just so amazing... I am truly humbled... and honestly - I hope to be able to give those acts of the kindness in the very near future.
M(f): 40 D'ed: 8/12
Show empathy when there's pain. Show grace when warranted. Kindness in the midst of anger. Faith in the face of fear.
