We continue today with another powerful example of maintaining perspective and choosing the life we want to live.  I saw a story about a woman who donated a kidney to her boyfriend only to find out that he was cheating on her.  He broke up with her and moved away.  This woman literally saved this man’s life and he still had the audacity to seek something else from someone else without even communicating with her to see if their relationship was reparable.  In my mind this woman had every right to collapse into herself—I mean, how horrific of this person to take advantage in that way.  But the woman chose a different perspective: No one can take your happiness.  I also added that this was the epitome of understanding that no one owes us a damn thing (as much as that hurts to admit).

She astutely realized that she didn’t want to live the rest of her life in anger.  She had gone through a surgical procedure for someone she thought she loved and who she believed loved her and she discovered that he had been unfaithful for some time.  She started thinking back to her emotions surrounding his condition prior to the procedure and she knew seeing him go through dialysis for 9 hours every night wasn’t an option for someone she cared about if she could fix it.  She realized that he fed into this in providing her literature on the transplant process.  In the end, she said she didn’t want him to suffer like that regardless and she could live a normal life with one kidney.  It was as simple as that in the end and she chose to go about her life in ways that made her happy.

The lesson I took away regarding human nature frustrates me but it’s still true.  There are certain actions I’m sure we are all comfortable letting slide.  Like we buy our friend an ice cream one day and they don’t buy one back for us later.  Some of us may even be comfortable always being the sounding board for someone or we help them process something tough and they don’t support us back.  But this is the extreme: a surgical procedure to remove an organ and save someone’s life and they still can’t remain faithful.  Perhaps that’s just my expectation, but what a crappy person.  And how blatant that someone can literally save a life and the other person will still find a way to hurt them and take advantage as if that isn’t enough.  But the truth is, no one owes us anything regardless of what we do for them and nothing we do should be with the expectation of receiving anything back, even if it’s just decency and appreciation. 

We can function with one kidney just as we can function without people meeting our expectations.  Make decisions in life that work for us and that fulfill our purpose rather than doing things for other people and people pleasing with the hope that they will do the same for us.  No one will fulfill our dreams or our purpose and there will be plenty of people who don’t appreciate what we do for them.  Choose to be happy anyway.  Choose to be a good person anyway.  Choose to find things that bring us joy and fulfill us and be content to allow people to do what they do.  Do things aligned with who we are and we will never be disappointed.  Life is beautiful in spite of a few rotten apples out there—let’s focus on that.