Just walk away

A Women of Respect recently shared a story with me about the murder of her friends daughter. A man and a woman who would not just walk away. Domestic Violence is the largest most unreported crime in many of our communities. Why so hard to just walk away? Why do we have to stay through the abuse? Maybe we are so familiar with the abuse that it is more comfortable to remain in a familiar pain than to risk the unknown. Maybe we spend too much time around others that experience a similar abuse that we think that it is normal. Maybe we have experienced living through personal abuse as a child or have seen it as a child also leading to the belief that abuse is normal. Maybe we have inner feelings of unworthiness that causes us, on some level to believe that we deserve to be abused. Thoughts might be something like... How could we really expect to be respected, knowing what we do about ourselves? Maybe our women are attempting to live up to the myth of being the SUPER WOMEN and not just women. Maybe the men are too ashamed to discuss the abuse that they receive from women. Maybe your religious beliefs teach that it is better to stay and endure than to leave.

Why can't we just walk away? The abuse can take the form of verbal (Public/Private) as well as physical( small/large). Are you the victim of some forms of abuse? Would others consider you as the perpetrator of abuse? As we strive to function above and beyond we must remember that we deserve to be respected. Others deserve to be respected, at least as humans even if we don't approve of their actions currently.

"If you can't get along, move on"..unknown
We will either learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or we will die together as fools...Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Let's accept that not only do we have options but so does everyone else. Live and let live. "Don't sweat the small stuff...It's all small stuff"... unknown. Sometimes the best method to reduce the violence is to just walk away.

Respect