Who Let the Cat out?

I feel bad for Meghan Markle.  Unfortunately, I know how it feels to have your own family embarrass you on your wedding day.  How very noble of Prince Charles to step in and walk her down the aisle.  Meghan’s own father and brother seem unable to handle being related to a celebrity.  The one tried to cash in and the other felt the need to destroy his sister’s character in a nasty letter to her fiancé.

I don’t delve into celeb gossip, but her sad family does hit close to home.

I’ve had similar problems.  

So how does one live it down after saying or doing something deplorable?

Prince Charles has had his own mistakes played out in the public eye.  He knows well how messy life really is.  It takes time to recover people’s respect and trust after you have made a bad mistake. Unfortunately, some people don’t know how to move forward.

They want to forget, and they assume everyone else will play along.

Maybe you misspoke, or got drunk and trashed someone’s wedding, or got angry and scared someone away.  Did you do something you really wish you hadn’t.  You made a colossal mistake.

The wrong thing to do is play it off like no big deal.

There are hurt feelings involved, maybe resentment, maybe anger, maybe even fear.

You need to face what you did and who you did it to.  Apologize. Then give some time and space to the victims of your bad behavior.

The next move is not yours.  You then need to wait for the grace of God to step in and move your friends and/or family to forgive you.

Next time, you can and will do better.  Next time you have to forgive someone, remember this.  If you lose your temper, it is you who may damage a relationship beyond repair.

I feel bad for Meghan.  Her family has wounded her.  But I’ve moved forward.  I still have an emptiness where certain people used to live in my heart.  I have new friends and family to love as well.  

When people won’t acknowledge their mistakes, it is not possible to move forward with them.  

It’s a lot easier not to make a mistake than it is to clean it up.  Once the cat is out of the bag, it must be acknowledged. How you treat people in this situation says volumes about who you are.  Be as kind as humanly possible.