Walking is a great time for retrospection. I asked myself this question recently: Am I too naive?
I don’t hate people. I don’t wait for an opportune moment to take revenge. I don’t carry anger toward people. Things do go wrong, and I get irritated or frustrated for a few brief moments, but I learnt not to carry grudges against people. I have a few people around me who enjoy seeing people struggle. I’ve seen and experienced this. Earlier, I held onto grudges, but as part of my personal growth, I don’t hold onto them now. I still get briefly upset by the actions of those people. Then I let it go, but I keep them in a separate category out of caution.
If things go wrong, I leave it to destiny. But paradoxically, I still and firmly believe that I can and have the ability to change my future destiny with good karma. I accept outcomes. But I work on inputs.
Sometimes people misunderstand this. If you’re calm, they think you’re easy. If you don’t react loudly, they assume you don’t notice things. That’s not true. Nowadays, I just don’t react to everything I see. I observe a lot. I do remember patterns, and I keep people in different categories in my mind, with awareness, not with negativity.
My earlier conflict: if I’m still cautious, am I still holding something inside?
Answer is: I don’t think so.
Forgiving someone and trusting someone are two different things. Forgiveness is internal. Trust is an outcome of consistency in a relationship (personal, professional, social). I’m genuinely a well-wisher for everyone, yet I still decide how much access they should have in my life. That’s not bitterness. That’s understanding.
The closest example I can think of is a rose plant. A rose is beautiful, but it has thorns. If a thorn pricks you once, you don’t start hating roses. You just learn how to hold it carefully next time. The respect stays. The awareness increases. That’s how I look at people now.
Over time, my mindset has become very simple: stay calm, stay present, keep learning, accept reality, don’t judge too quickly. I act from what feels right inside rather than reacting to every outside situation.
So sometimes I still ask myself, does all this make me naive? If naive means blindly trusting everyone, then no. I notice. I learn. I adjust. If ‘naive’ means choosing peace rather than carrying negativity, then yes. And honestly, I’m okay with that.
The world often rewards loudness and aggression. Calmness doesn’t always look powerful from the outside. But calmness is not weakness. It’s control.
So no, I don’t think I’m naive.
I just learned how to hold the rose carefully.