Taking Offense

This morning, I did a FB Live.

I do these almost daily.

I did it on my personal page.

I told it from my point of view.

I received messages afterwards from people thanking me for helping them to not feel so alone.

Then, I received a comment on it.

"You're going to offend someone."

I deleted the Live immediately.

Now I regret that decision - 

Not the one to do the Live or to say anything at all that I said in it.

But, to delete it out of fear that someone would be offended.

Remember that whole validation talk we had the other day??

Remember what my addiction is??

To BE validated!

And, I gave in to one person who assumed others would be offended.

So, that is what I am going to talk about here.

I am speaking mostly to myself, so I will direct it to me...

Heidi Rae,

As a reminder, this is your story.

In your space.

Other people can read it or watch it, or not.

Other people can have personal opinions on it, or not.

Other people can validate you, or invalidate you.

Other people get to choose.

And so do you.

You are choosing to tell your story on a very public platform.

That is brave.

It is also an opening for others to judge you.

And that would be their choice, with no reflection on you or your story.

Heidi, your objective is never to offend anyone.

However, you have done this long enough to recognize that plenty of people are going to be offended.

That is part of life.

That does not mean that you stop telling your story.

That means that you keep telling your story and allow others to tell theirs.

It means that when other people tell their story, you don't get offended either Heidi.

We all have the responsibility, really, to tell our stories.

Keep telling yours, Heidi Rae.