Artsieladie Sharon Donnelly Poet Rhyme

Notes About The Poem

Everyone has a breaking point with varying degrees of threshold levels among us. 

Some have a very low threshold of tolerance and patience and with these people, if they're a part of our lives, walking on eggshells around them is often how we deal with them or we try to avoid them whenever possible. We have a greater tendency to try to please them because we don't want to deal with them when they're displeased. We hope to avoid a combative confrontation.

Some have a high threshold of tolerance and have a lot of patience. These people we can easily take advantage of and not necessarily realise we are, until that is, they reach their breaking point and usually, a person with a high threshold learns how to hold inside themselves a number of things they've tolerated, put up with, until they reach their breaking point. Then watch out because all they've kept pent up, they will likely unleash and show their accumulated frustration all at once.

People with a low threshold, we expect frequent adverse and angry reactions from. But, people with a high threshold, we suddenly are taken aback when they react to us adversely and then, we think they've gone off the deep end, when really they've simply reached their breaking point.

I think the best to try and cultivate for ourselves is the 'middle ground' and try not to expect someone else to accept/put up with something we wouldn't likewise accept or tolerate ourselves. We should cultivate tolerance and patience but not to the point where we don't establish boundaries for ourselves, thus letting others walk all over us as a result. ..And the Golden Rule we should always apply. ♥

Breaking Point

With every struggle in life, there's a cost to one's supply
Of their strength, courage, and hope needed to apply.
The cost will depend upon each struggle's intensity
And the number of to face throughout life's history.

When there are few in number, of a lesser count,
Or aren't very difficult to rise above, surmount,
Those who struggle less say, want it understood,
Life is not so bad, but is wonderful and good.

It's easy to stay positive when there's less to face;
When instead of mountains, there are hills in place.
When one's road is less difficult, it's easy for them
To, those on a tougher journey, be critical of, condemn.

When there are many struggles and/or are hard to bear,
Those afflicted with grow weary from the wear and tear.
Over time the wear is costly since it's accumulative,
Until eventually the toll can reduce one's will to live.

When weariness reaches its limits very near 
And the person has to face; another mountain, clear,
If their strength, their courage, and their hope is thin,
Another stressful situation can/will then do them in.

Everyone has a limit as to how much they can take;
Some more than others before they will break.
Those who can take a lot are often then expected
To handle anything thrown at, onto them projected.

One with a higher tolerance level often gets used
Until they say, "Enough" and then will be abused
Because there are some who, advantage, take
And care not or think of, for another's sake.

We shouldn't expect of others what we wouldn't do;
Anything we would not accept and would object to.
When we expect of others that to, we would object,
We feed our selfish ego which on us then will reflect.

Sometimes though, in life we do have to ask
Because we need another to do for us a task.
If this be the case, for reasons too numerous to say,
Appreciation and gratefulness we must too relay.

Therefore, before others we ask of or expect,
We must be thoughtful of and must show respect;
Realise they have a Breaking Point as we, ourselves, do;
We can't just assume for us they can always come through.

We must keep in mind since we can't ever really know
How much one is dealing with but chooses not to show.
Nor do we know their burdens, how great their weight,
When we dump on others expecting them to tolerate.

In life it's said, the more we rise above and get through,
The stronger we will be and this may well be true,
But there's still a Breaking Point, which beyond we cannot go
And even among the strongest, there's still a call for "No".

Written by Artsieladie/Sharon Donnelly
©2017-02-10 03:22:00 (EST)
All rights reserved.

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Constance La France May 22, 2018 at 7:22 AM Sharon, you offer some very good advice in your poem, well done, for me, I just surrender it all to the universe, to God perhaps (still not certain there is a God), to a higher power ~ Artsieladie Sharon Donnelly June 5, 2018 at 3:18 AM Thanks, Broken Wings. I always say what works for each individual is what is best for each. All the best to you. :) ~ Artsie