brand new start

Fortunately every new day is the start of the rest of our lives and not just January 1st. And so today is another brand new start. I'm trying to figure if my learning is that I need to do things differently.
One thing that has been important to me is to try not to retaliate to people's hurt and resulting meanness, with meanness of my own. Repaying hate with love is an aim, but I am only human. Ideally my sense of self would be enough that I can not let people's meanness in, and can just radiate love B-) People will inevitably press my buttons throughout my life and it's not the people I need to get rid of, it's the buttons!!!
The key thing I may have to remember is that this is just the same for others. When people reject me I can take that personally, but actually all that is going on is that I am pressing someone's buttons.
Like everyone, I have tons of options as to how to respond. It would not be giving in/giving up if I made a decision to refocus my energy and move away from those who find me too much of a press in their buttons. Yes it might 'only' be their hurt that gets in the way but it doesn't mean I deserve to be hurt. I can choose to surround myself with people who happily want to be with me. Of course I can and will keep loving everyone I come across, including those who kick off. But I don't have to actively seek them out!
So whilst I can give thanks for those who show me those areas of personal development I still need to work on, I can choose to work on it at my own pace rather than place myself in a constant firing line. I have to let go of my moral highground that helps no-one. If I see it as 'sinking to their level' then it shows I've set myself up as higher than them when the truth is all of us are doing our best with the feelings we have. Their decision to move away from me as I press their buttons too much is no different from my decision. So I will keep working on how best to welcome everyone whilst knowing that I also get to make good decisions about what is right for me, and remembering that we all have way more in common than we sometimes realize!!