The old weight on your shoulders

So it's the beginning of the fourth month into 7. It has become a way of life for my whole family. I was walking to the park with my kids and my older daughter spotted litter on the side of the alley and without missing a beat grabbed it and threw it in the trash. I know this is because she sees me doing this and it's nice to see such concrete evidence that they learn from what they see us doing.

In the past few weeks I have realized that I tend to hang onto negative thoughts or things that happen throughout the day. For example, I was at a store and there was a woman on a cell phone trying to get her shopping cart through a door with her kids in it, the door was slamming shut on her cart so I ran over and held it for her. She in no way acknowledged me and I thought to myself that that was kind of rude. Then I told my sister about it and we ended up talking about rude people. It ended up being quite the discussion about all the people that do things like that and how horrible they are. I don't want to be the person who's always whining about the people who don't say thank you etc. Negativity breeds negativity.
My kids had a book from the library with a bunch of short stories in them. One was about an old monk and a young monk walking in a busy town. A young lady dressed in her best and carrying many shopping bags runs into a large mud puddle. The old monk runs over, puts her on his back and carries her over the mud. She sticks her nose in the air and walks away with no word of thanks. The old monk and the young monk finish their business and continue walking. Young monk is fuming at the behavior of the young lady and finally says, aren't you angry that she treated you that way after what you did for her? Old monk says I put her down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?
So here's to putting down the things that I don't need to hang onto anymore. Cheers.