One quote I’ve seen several times on Facebook and one a good friend quotes to me is “The same water that makes the egg hard, makes the potato soft.” My friend Britt always reminds me to be the soft potato. So here’s my deep dive into what has become one of my favorite quotes.
When life gets hard, it’s easy for us to clam up, put walls up to protect ourselves, and some days it just seems right to give the world a taste of its own bitter medicine. However, what that ends up looking like, whether we mean to or not, is being rude to the nice barista when you get your coffee, being short with the clerk at the gas station, or unfortunately, it can even mean being snappy to those who care for you most. When we let the world turn us hard, we sometimes take it out on those who deserve it the least.
What the quote hits on is instead of being rude to the wrong people, use your situation to be extra kind. Spread kindness everywhere! Tip an extra dollar at the coffee shop, tell the clerk to have a good day, and remind those around you that you love them. It will bring you joy to spread joy!
I experienced a personal situation in the closing of my and Mike’s nonprofit. I was hurt by someone I considered a friend. It still to this day causes some pain and confusion on WHY! It was a situation that caused me to want to cut everyone off, not let people stay close so I didn’t get hurt again. But then my dear friend was there reminding me, “be the soft potato”.
It doesn’t mean you let yourself be walked all over; it doesn’t mean you take disrespect. It means you walk away from bad situations with grace, allowing yourself to accept those apologies you may never get because it’s what’s good for you! You allow your heart to stay soft and open because it’s a shame to close off everything for one bad situation. You won’t hurt the people that hurt you by becoming hard and closed off, you hurt yourself. You are doing a disservice to yourself and will miss out on some beautiful things in life.
However, with all that being said, it is harder to stay soft! It takes more courage than simply shutting everything off. So don’t think I’m saying this is easy, it hurts at first and it’s tough! It’s so worth it at the end though. You may need to take a little time to disconnect but when you reemerge, come out being the soft potato.
Thanks for reading!
M
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