After I went off on a rant about something or other one evening, I told the martial arts training partner I was with that I was sorry if I went off for too long. I’m just a real hothead sometimes, I told them.
“But you’re trying not to be,” this training partner said back. It was generous of them.
“Uhh, yeah…” I nodded, but also I thought … “… that’s not really true….”
I AM a hot head. I get angry. I see this as a strength and a weakness.
I feel like I can’t HELP in some ways that I am a hothead, but also, it’s because I grew up in a house with a really angry father, so anger was currency. If I can get the angriest and the loudest, I can win.
ANYWAY, when I was done training that night and back home, maybe it was even days later I thought to myself about the situation and arrived at my own resolution:
I’m not trying ‘not to be’ a hothead.
I’m allowing myself to be a hothead.
And I am enjoying it.
Meanwhile, I am listening carefully
for how to best
and most peacefully
channel that energy
into my art.