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How Does One Say No After A Lifetime Of Saying Yes?
May Prompt: When Words Set You Free
Journaling your truth and discovering healing in your own words —
I have been encouraged to join the convent, become a nurse, or teach because I love to help. Someone said I love to serve. I enjoy giving and helping. It is fun and an involuntary action for me. I love to see the smile on a child’s face when I help them with anything. Children are kinder than most adults I know.
For the next forty years, I didn’t say no to anyone who needed help. I didn’t know how to say those words. Raising children was fun for me. I had lots of fun helping them and other children. I helped everyone I could as long as I could. I am the go-to person in my group and community for anything anyone wants. I don’t ask, so I don’t get.
Jamaicans often say, “who beg, nah get, who no beg, no want.”
That means that because I asked no one for anything, I don’t need anything. Our thinking is often our enemy.
