{"id":309,"date":"2009-06-08T17:10:50","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T17:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeasprayer.wordpress.com\/?p=309"},"modified":"2009-06-08T17:10:50","modified_gmt":"2009-06-08T17:10:50","slug":"birds-of-a-feather-or-opposites-attract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/birds-of-a-feather-or-opposites-attract\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds of a feather&#8230;or opposites attract?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe both are true. Maybe at different times, each one is true. When I see a pack of mean girls at the mall, I think, &#8220;birds of a feather&#8230;,&#8221; or &#8220;misery loves company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-310\" title=\"mallgirls\" src=\"http:\/\/lifeasprayer.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/mallgirls.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"mallgirls\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mallgirls.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mallgirls-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mallgirls-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mallgirls-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mallgirls-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, in certain instances we are drawn to others with characteristics absent in ourselves, and, to me, this is a good thing. A sage\/spiritual\u00a0director, a mentor, a spouse, or a friend, may seem more intriguing\u00a0because\u00a0they posses traits and qualities we admire, but have not quite yet mastered. From them we learn a lot, when we are willing. And if they are wise, they also learn.<\/p>\n<p>The comfort from being around people like us can be soothing, and smoother sailing, but it will not produce the kind of growth that healthy conflict can. The smoothing of the rough edges happens best during the interaction of\u00a0dissimilar\u00a0personalities. When there is mutual respect, very beneficial outcomes, personal growth, spiritual growth, and learning are the consistent result of contrasting personalities.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reflection question:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Who has been the most beneficial in your life who was not like you, and what was the lesson from them that you appreciated most?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(feel free to leave a comment.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which is true, birds of a feather flock together, or opposites attract? Which one produces the most beneficial outcomes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626],"tags":[393,420,2166,2196,2414,2534,3191,74],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","tag-betterment","tag-birds-of-a-feather","tag-means-girls","tag-mentors","tag-opposites-attract","tag-personal-growth","tag-spiritual-director","tag-spiritual-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}