Fine Line...Where does it End?

I think there's a fine line we all walk in our daily lives.  Don't you? You may not even realize you are walking it.

For me, who wears my heart on my sleeve and my mood ALL OVER my face, some days are harder than others to find that balance. 

What I'm referring to specifically is how much bend are you willing to give some days?  It's situational, I think. 

Here's an example.  I submitted writing samples for a guest writer gig about how I deal with my heart issues.  Obviously, anyone who reads my blog, knows that's the central theme to the blog.  Hell, it's called "The Bionic Mommy".  So, I sent in a few samples of what I thought were good entries. I went off of the highest stats my entries got too, readership numbers.  I get a really fast response back basically saying everything I submitted was wrong and not at all what they wanted.  OK.  They are allowed to have their opinion.

But, I deleted the email.  Because, I can really only control how I react to it. 

At first I thought, "Well, Tammy, you love writing, you want to write, you've got to take the criticism and change it ALL." And yes, that is all true, but at the same time, due to this subject matter - I can't change how I felt.  And that is what I wrote about.  I can't (and I won't) change my wording about how I felt, how I found hope, faith and smiles during the dark times in my life to fit in someone else's format.  Especially when the call was out for how I deal with being sick.  WTF? How can I change how I deal with it?

So, now, I have to delete the train of thought, and remember, its a fine line.  And on this issue, I was not going to cross the line and change my writing to fit the mold.  Obviously, this just isn't the project for me.  I've written for other projects, and I know I will write for many more.  And if its grammar, or logistics, no problem changing.  But I'm not going to change who I am (by changing my writing) about my experiences. 

It's not fiction.  It's my life. 

So, where do you find the balance on the fine lines in your life?  When do you bend? When do you stick? It's a purely gut level experience for me.  As I get older, I am learning not to fire back nasty emails, but to take a breath and hit delete.  And if I'm still stewing, write about it the next day. 

So, I deleted it. Some people refer to the fine line as what's worth fighting for and what's not.  Is it worth fighting for if someone forgets your birthday? Eh, not so much.  Taking edits on my works of fiction - abso-freaking-lutely. But not on my non-fiction. Forgetting cheese on your burger? Maybe - depends on how hungry you are.  And how your day is going.

Maybe we need to remember that - when we deliver messages to people, and maybe HOW we deliver them to people.  Bluntness isn't always the best.  Not by a long shot.  We don't know how their day is going.  So, it's all in the delivery. 

And its a fine line.