Since I was a little girl, I was told "You Never Get A Chance To Make Another First Impression". I remember my Mom and Dad trying to teach us to watch what we did and said, because others would always be watching us. I too have tried to pass that on to my kids.
But with that said, I have to admit one of my favorite friends now, is a person that I judged quite harshly. We had a mutual friend who had heard us both talk about each other. She laughed because she said that we were so much alike. So after a rather embarrassing confrontation about it, we were able to realize that we had judged each other wrongfully and laughed at how we first met and our impressions with each other. We were amazed at how in some areas, we were a lot alike. I have become close to this dear friend and his family. What a blessing they have been in my life. This poem reminded me of that experience and how I might have missed the opportunity to know them, had not a friend intervened. Yes, this poem was a great reminder that our first impressions of someone might not always be accurate. It has made me try to reserve my judgements until I have looked a bit further and when needed give them another chance. Life... is full of lessons isn't it?
First Impressions
It is not right to judge a man
By hasty glance or passing whim,
Or think that first impressions can
Tell all there is to know of him.
Who knows what weight of weariness
The man we rashly judge may bear,
The burden of his loneliness,
His blighted hopes, his secret care.
A pompous guise or air of pride
May only be an outward screen,
A compensation meant to hide
A baffled will, a grief unseen.
However odd a person seems,
However strange his ways may be,
Within each human spirit gleams
A spark of true divinity.
So what can first impressions tell?
Unthinking judgments will not do,
Who really knows a person well
May also come to like him too! ~ Alfred Grant Walton
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~ Mother Teresa
" Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances." ~ Wayne Dyer