When people act badly

When people act badly
remember, that they do so
from a place of damage
or woundedness, for
it is not in our soul nature
to seek to hurt others.

Listen then to the whispered
words of your heart,
and not to those the ego
would shout in defence,
for that would only take you
to your own place of
woundedness, or damage,
and add to the pain.

It is in holding to the grieving,
with compassion for the source,
and understanding that,
if they were not so damaged,
or so wounded, then they would
not do what they have done,
and it is, at the end, about
them and not about you.

When people are cruel, unkind,
thoughtless, inconsiderate or
rude, it is their broken child
crying out and the only answer
that child can hear is the silent
breath of love and understanding,
and perhaps the song of hope,
which plays beneath them.