Right Speech
“Nope. Not going there.” Ginny looked Lisa straight in the eye, determined to hold her ground this time.
“What’s gotten into you lately?” Lisa sneered. “Every time I so much as mention those losers, you start with this crap.”
“Have you noticed that all you do is talk trash about people?”
“What? Whatever. Since when did you become so damned pure?”
Ginny started to wilt. Lisa wasn’t wrong. She had badmouthed practically every other girl in the school. But that was before she started reading the Dharma. Right speech. It was part of the eight-fold path. Ginny wasn’t sure she wanted to be a Buddhist. But she sure as hell wanted to be a better person.
She straightened her shoulders, standing a little taller. She couldn’t change her past, but she didn’t want to live there either. Another Buddhist teaching. She controlled her current choices and therefore the future her.
“I didn’t become pure. I realized just how rotten I’ve been. I won’t be that person anymore. And if I’m going to change, I need to stop hanging out with people who want to stay stuck in unhealthy patterns.”
Ginny walked away from her best friend, determined to keep her distance. She pushed send on the email she had been hanging onto for the last month. Maybe Lisa would click the link. Maybe the stuff on the website would get through to Lisa like it had to her. If not, at least Ginny would have planted a seed.
This is a story whose idea seemed to spontaneously pop into my mind. I’m sure something triggered it, though I’ve no idea what.
I have a saying on my fridge... heck, I have them all over the place but this one is on my fridge. "No one can go back and have a new beginning but everyone can start today and have a new ending". Love the story because it is a way in which someone has taken that first step. Nice.
Heartwarming 🙏