To the thief that stole my really nice fiberglass ladder that I saved up for years to buy on sale with a coupon:

I hope you break a much loved body part if you ever try to use it. And if you stole it for a quick sale, I hope whatever you get for it vanishes on you when you most count on it being there.

I cannot forgive you for this act. Not now. Maybe not ever. Stealing is wrong. And my struggle is no less of a struggle than what you may be facing. You don’t know. I don’t know. We don’t know how close we are to snapping. Ever. You can never know what’s going on in someone’s mind.

Just because I try to meditate every day to train my brain to act instead of reacting doesn’t mean I have become successful in every situation. I also have been trying to let my feelings flow instead of ignoring or bottling them up. So I am angry. And while I think I have a good enough handle on myself to not do physical violence to you should I meet you, because that would also be wrong. I can certainly picture myself doing it. Perhaps the next person you steal will be quite different.

I guess my learning lesson here is to buy a cheaper ladder. If it’s less appealing, it might not get stolen and I might have something to use for more than 2 months. Even if it gets rickety in a couple of years and needs to be replaced, at least I will have been able to use it more than a handful of times before it disappears.