You know what? I’ve heard when the old saying “Choose your battles” so many times that I can’t even begin to count the times. I’ve often used it to calm a discouraged friend or an angry coworker. But most recently I used it in dealing with myself with one minor change…”Choose when to fight”. I must say that the small change to the quote made it fit perfectly into my situation. You see, I tend to have a predictable “life cycle” to my temperament. I have an extremely long fuse in which I take, take, take all the things that are thrown at me; however, when I do get my fill I tend to move rather quickly and without notice to the next phase. The next phase in withdrawal where I tend to pull myself out of situation and “stew” by myself with my problems. This isn’t good at all b/c the proper people that can help usually don’t know if this phase is doing as it normally does. And then there’s the explosion, the last and final phase. Normally this is completely unplanned and not properly directed at the “thorns” that have caused me to get to this point….instead it is directed towards people I love and care about. Maybe that’s b/c I feel I can trust them…or maybe it’s b/c I feel safe enough with them to let it all hang out and vent. However, this past time I directed it in the proper direction and I’m hoping that it actually brings about some changes. We’ll see.