Shades of Grey.

I stopped on Oprah the other day because she was interviewing past Oscar winners; I told you, I'm obsessed with award shows.  Well, I barely watched any of it, but what I did see was Holly Hunter answer a question about what she would say to a young version of herself.  She talked about how everything is much more a shade of grey and not as black and white as when she was younger.  This struck me and I can't get it out of my mind.

I spent a large part of my life trying to make people happy.  Don't get me wrong, I still have major people pleasing tendencies, but I've worked very hard to develop an opinion of my own and to stand by it (starting a blog helps with that sort of thing -- it forces you to document your opinion for others to see!).  After spending so much time trying to make other people happy rather than myself I think I got a little caught up.  I think I had a bit of an adrenaline high of stating opinions, or even having an opinion, and defined myself and those around me a little too drastically.

It's important to remember that life is filled with shades of grey, at least it's important for me and I hope so for you, too.  It's easy to decide something is wrong or right, it isn't easy to understand a point of view that isn't yours or support a friend that's making a decision you don't approve of.  But being non-judgmental makes life easier.  And better.  We all lead very different lives and we all come from very different places and it's important to remember that my way is not the right way.

Life is too short to let judgment affect our decisions.

I'd like to go forward and remember that not everything is as it seems.  And that we all have some form of hurt inside us that helps to inform our decisions.  It is better to be kind than to be right.  This I need to remember.

photo via flickr