Joy, Health, and Nachas
I probably don’t seem like a critical person to you, but that’s only because you’re not inside my head when I walk down the street. And the worst part is I’m especially critical (secretly, silently, as I walk down the street) of other mothers!
So for a few months now, every time I pass another mother on the street or any other non-mom person who causes critical thoughts to percolate, I do something that is easy and wonderfully effective at neutralizing my poison darts.
I silently bless this potential target of my negativity with a blessing instead: “May Hashem bless you with simcha, briyut, and nachat!” Joy, health, and nachas.
Every time I bless a passerby I feel like I’m brightening up the world in my own little way.
At the very least, I’m brightening up and sweeping away some ugly cobwebs in the corners of my heart.