There's a trick you learn when stacking wood. All of the pieces are not uniform. They don’t go together like leggo. They have odd, twisted and asymmetrical shapes. Some sticks are downright strange and gangly. The strange and gangly ones, when you give them a bit of extra space can create a nice basis for the other odd shaped ones.
Giving each stick the space it needs seems to lead to steady and sturdy pile of wood.
Consider the other option. Insist that the twisted up, weird and knotty ones line up with the super straight grained ones. Now expect them to behave the same way and function together seamlessly. That’s a recipe for a shaky wood pile.
So. How do you make space for the freaky twisted people in your life? How do you make space and support the twisted up and weird parts of you?
Or,
Are you putting knotty sticks next to straight ones and expecting them to behave?
It’s like the old saying goes:
Life’s a lot like fussing over a woodpile. In the end, woodpile or person, we all end up as ashes.
As Mary Poppins said, "Love them Gov'ner. Love them, every one. Love them all" ; or some such, after the drapes to play clothes fiasco.
When you embody love, you see the good in all. Want to be more loving? Find the positive. What is awesome or beneficial about this/them?
Start with the wood? The odd piece will add more air flow than the uniform ones. That helps the pile dry so it will burn better.
Level up: The pandemic? What to admire? Timing. My work started to lightly use a client relationship management system about two years before the pandemic. MS Teams was just about to get integrated into our operations as well. We fast tracked that in March of 2020. We had the tools to be productive remotely. If this happened in 1993. Well, email was just starting to be used. Good luck with that. The new vaccine delivery method developed is highly promising for preventing other illnesses. Medical research just had a "One small step for vaccines, one large step for human wellbeing" moment. There just isn't much talk of that because of, well, you know, a lethal pandemic, a climate crisis and a world wide shift on the political realm away from democracy. What's to love about that. Some awful things sneak up on you. We make scary movies about those. The loud things that don't sneak, but slowly grown and whimper and try to take over the world? Those are zombie issues. And killing zombies isn't hard, it just takes a coordinated effort.