She said: Resolution Discovery

It is amazing to me the number of times things have come up in the past week that are directly related to my new year's resolution.

Here is just one example: We recently went to one of our favorite restaurants to have a nice pleasant dinner. In the next booth, just behind me, there sat someone who was kicking the booth so hard that it could be heard by hubby. Now this is one of my pet peeves, so my first reaction was less than full of grace and dignity. My thought was to get up and confront the person, or at least ask the waiter for another booth. (That would not have worked because the restaurant was full.) Thankfully my resolution came to mind before any action was taken. So we talked about how to handle this situation with grace and dignity. We also talked about what was with the person doing the kicking. The person happened to get up to use the restroom, so hubby got a look. His impression was that it was just a kid. But when the person came back I noticed that it was a small fully grown woman. For whatever reason the kicking ceased and we could finish our delicious meal in peace.

After this experience, as well as a few others, I have discovered some things about incorporating grace and dignity into one's life. First, kindness and grace go together. In other words, to show grace one must be kind. If you are unkind in any way you cannot show grace. Second, it is very difficult to be angry and have dignity. The first thing to go when you loose your temper is your dignity, if you let it.

There have been other examples where my resolution to have more grace and dignity for the new year has been challenged this week. But the restaurant example is the most obvious one.
And it was an eye-opener to realize in order to have grace and dignity, kindness and controlling anger is a must.