I think I almost always mention this, but I love watching people interact with each other. There is something fascinating about how people get along and laugh with each other, even if they are strangers. You think that the world is beautiful as you watch people interact and watch children run around playing tag. We find ourselves smiling involuntarily and our hearts become filled with hope and happiness. So I thought, why can’t we maintain these kinds of relationships with those close to us?

Life is filled with fluctuating emotions in our different states of being. We find ourselves happy one moment, sad another, angry the next and so on. Similarly, in our interactions with each other, our emotional states change frequently. These interactions are what we need to survive. Interacting with others is what we do to make sense of our lives. It is what we do to help form connections and bonds with each other.

But we are also a species whose instincts are to protect ourselves from pain and harm. We see this happening during a fallout with a person we consider close to us. During a fallout with someone, which is an inevitable part of life, we get overwhelmed with disappointment and sadness. Our instant reaction is to defend ourselves and not let the other person hurt us any longer.

In order to have the upper hand, we use every tool at our disposal, including revealing deep secrets a loved one entrusted to us. We get loud and very angry at the person. Now that we feel that we have the upper hand, we also become conceited and pretentious just to make ourselves feel better. It is like we are sending a message to everyone not to mess with us.

But what we don’t realize is that what we are doing doesn’t only hurt the person, but also turns us into a vengeful being. What happened to being kind to each other in times of heightened emotions and difficulties?

There is something called the rule of six. It is a strategy used to not take whatever comes our way personally. The rule of six tells us to make six excuses as to why an event happened. Why it happened in the way it did and how this event is the result of the interactions we had with others. I am trying to say that life with the COVID-19 pandemic is already hard, and falling out with our loved ones makes our life even harder than it should be.

Keep in mind that we will never be in one state of being, be it happiness or anger. Revealing our loved ones’ secrets and exposing their insecurities just to make ourselves feel like we won is a feeling that won’t last, so why not hold onto the beautiful people that come into our lives? Why not say kind words to each other and keep the secrets people share with us? Why not have the decency to keep their secrets even if life happens and you drift apart or have serious fallouts?

The pandemic has taught me that nothing is more important than people in our lives. When we take them for granted and play mind games when things go wrong, it does more harm than good. Learning to find beauty and joy in small moments and appreciating those around us is paramount in a time like this. Life is made of many beautifully mundane moments and it takes a good heart to see and acknowledge them as blessings. Let’s be kind to one another and not make life even harder than it is.