A man comes to an old rabbi and complains about the situation at home.
“Rabbi, I can’t get along with my wife anymore. I come home tired from work and, instead of waiting for me with food, she starts criticizing me. She tells me this is missing, that is missing, that I didn’t do this or that, that the children didn’t behave properly. I get angry and we argue.”
The old rabbi looks at him gently and says:
“You’re right. But think about it, she works too, just like you. She spends the whole day with the children. It’s as if she has a 24-hour job, and she’s tired. Listen to her with patience. Ask her to put something to eat on the table in the meantime, and you’ll see that things will calm down.”
The next day, the man’s wife comes to the old rabbi and says:
“Rabbi, my husband doesn’t behave properly. He comes home agitated from work, raises his voice at me, and we argue almost every day.”
“You’re right,” says the rabbi. “But think about it, he comes home tired after a long day of work. Put something to eat on the table, let him catch his breath, and then tell him the problems you’ve been thinking about. You’ll see that things will calm down.”
The rabbi’s disciple, who had been present at both conversations, was confused. He couldn’t understand. After turning the issue over in his mind from every angle, he came to the rabbi and said:
“Rabbi, yesterday the man came and you told him he was right. Today the woman came and you told her she was right. They can’t both be right.”
The rabbi looks at him gently and says, “You’re right too.”
The reason we’re telling you this story is that, too often, we become rigid in our own perspective. We believe it represents the whole truth. And we are no longer able to find solutions.
Sometimes, the path to solutions begins by recognizing that “others can be right too.”
Love and Wisdom,
Monica and Stefan
October 6th - The Hidden Costs of the Masks We Learn to Wear
Join Monica Ion for this free live workshop on what happens when the ways you learned to protect yourself become so familiar that they start feeling like “just who I am.”