Appreciating Niceness

Recently I made a comment to one of my colleagues, “They seem to treat our niceness as weakness”. And that’s what most people do. Whenever someone is nice, it’s always assumed that they need something or are weak and is always being taken for granted.

And this is so true, that in spite of knowing this, I always did it, but never realized it. The classic example is Ivy. I’ve been taking her for granted forever. I’m at office and when she calls me late at around 10.30 – 11 to check if I’m coming for dinner, I tell her casually that, “Oops, actually I’ve had dinner”. Only to realize later that she herself had not had dinner, waiting for me.

Whenever we’ve had a disagreement, (a polite word for a fight), she would be the one to make up. And I would be righteous and think, “Of course, she did, she was wrong”. But I guess it was my lack of maturity and her maturity that made her the better person. Whilst she was acting like an adult, I was acting like a spoilt brat. And then the human mind, being what it is begins to believe in what it tells itself many times.

Ivy is a working person. And works very hard. She’s a physician and practices at 2 hospitals and 1 clinic. The nearest is an hour away and the furthest 2 hours. She drives. In spite of all this, all 3 of us (My 2 daughters and me), demand attention, pampering, food and drink on demand, a nicely kept home, with everything in its place, whilst we’re extremely busy watching TV or browsing / playing on the Net.

And Ivy does all of this and more, with a smile. She’s nicer to my parents than I am. They’re more comfortable talking to her than me. So she’s a good daughter-in-law, a great mother and an awesome wife.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to say “Thank You”, for everything, and we do appreciate your niceness. And we’ll try and be nicer, but even if we aren’t and you continue to be as nice as you are, do know that we really, really appreciate and love you. More than words can say.