‘Tis The Season

‘Tis the season to be jolly??

Yeah, right!

I have a couple of stories to share with you about the right and the wrong way to act during this or any season.

I was heading home from work this week and got on the freeway as I always do. The merge lane is rather short, like me. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to get yourself into the flow of traffic before you are forced to exit again.

So I put on my turn indicator, looked over my shoulder, checked my mirrors, and proceeded to merge into the flow.

And out of nowhere, some idiot in a pickup truck comes BARRELING up the lane, flooring the gas peddle, and SCREAMS up to me and forces me back into the other lane. I nearly missed the merge because of this disgraceful human being.

I was boiling with rage. And then I let it go. I had to or I would have had a stroke right there on the freeway.

I accepted the reality that some people are really just awful and some get pleasure in doing stuff like that. Somehow it elevates them. Makes them bigger than the rest of us. Probably the kind of guy who would shove a grandma out of the supermarket line just so he could get to his football game on time.

My second story is a more pleasant one and reassures me that there are still good, kind people out there, too.

I was at Costco this week as well and another customer and I made our way to the milk fridge at the exact same time.

Neither of us noticed that there was seemingly only ONE box of fat free milk left. I technically got there a few paces ahead of him, so by the popular definitions of life, I was “entitled” to take the milk first.

But I didn’t. I offered it to the other man.

He was astonished by my thoughtful act.

“No, really! Please. I want you to take it. It’s not that important to me,” I said.

“Thanks SO much,” he said. “Milk was the main reason I came by the store today. Thank you.”

It felt nice to do this. It filled my heart with light and warmth. I remembered the jerk from earlier in the week who had nearly driven me into a ditch and wondered how anyone could feel good as their heart filled with darkness and nastiness.

The punch line is that just a little ways back in the giant fridge was a new, uncovered pallet of more fat free milk.

So we both ended up getting our milk and we both were able to walk away with an example of the humanity we can extend our fellow citizens.

These stories also are perfect illustrations of the choice we make every day to radiate positive or negative vibrations. That speed demon on the freeway was no doubt spreading his miserable experiences that day with the world. It wanted to make everyone’s day as awful as his own.

Me? I preferred my simple, magical moment in the dairy aisle. It’s moments like these that truly remind us of the joy and good cheer we should be spreading.

This, and every season.