THERE’S this quote that has been reposted on Facebook so many times, it now feels like it’s a constant reminder for all of us:
“My Mom once told me that she walked into a room where a couple of friends were discussing her, they didn’t know she was there. She shook her head, smiled, and walked away.
“My Mom also told me that she had a friend who talked bad about her, she never knew that Mom found out, Mom never mentioned it. She smiled and walked away from this friendship.
“She told me she had family who chose to shift her out of their life because she stood up for herself for a change. And because she stopped crossing oceans for them when they would not even help her cross a bridge. She smiled, shook her head, and walked away.
“So I asked her how she could just walk away from people that betrayed her while pretending to be her friends or family?
“She answered that every time she came to a crossroads like that, she had to decide who will be going forward on her journey with her. This showed her who she cannot take along with her.
“So she explained to me that you should never get mad at a person who betrays you, even in the name of friendship or family. Just gracefully bow out and enjoy your journey with all the new people God puts in their place.”
There’s this other quote that’s also worth noting down:
“If you have to choose between me and someone else, pick them.”
Getting older has its perks and one of them is the freedom from toxic people as senior moments can only allow a lower level of patience. The friend who hates you won’t have to deal with you anymore once she decides to block and drop you from her life. A friend’s wise advice for this is to lower that particular person from a friend to an acquaintance despite the fact that you have decided to choose friendship over conflict, which won’t work if the other party chooses conflict over friendship.
But once you’re out of her life, does that mean all her other friends will now be the kind that she wants? Or will she now gossip about these people whom she still considers her friends?
Gossiping is a hard habit to break for some people. Once a gossipmonger, always a gossipmonger. She talks about other people when she’s with you, and she talks about you when she’s with other people. The shocking thing is that no one even tries to stop her because they all love listening to her gossip even if it’s the same topic repeated over and over again until it’s already coming out of their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths since these are the same people who love to spread gossip. And these listeners are unaware that they can be her topics, too, in the future.
I love using the word “gossipmonger” because it sounds like “gossip monster.” Haha. Monstrously gossiping about other people, as if she’s the most perfect human being in the universe, with no mistakes, no errors, no sins. Like an angel, a saint, a god.
Beware of these holier-than-thou gossip monsters if you need real friends.
