Teachable Moment (For Me!!)
August 08, 2012
Posted By: Shaunescy
I'm not sure exactly the moment when we turned into such an impatient lot, but we don't like to wait, be delayed, or otherwise detoured in the slightest.
We get frustrated with lines for the toilet, stop lights and God help you if you leave your ginormous CostCo cart unattended to grab a free snack. {As I harken back to the recent moment when this happened to me, I can feel my lungs constrict. Need. A. Deep. Cleansing. Breath.}
Apparently, our fast-food isn't fast enough. I was just informed that our local taco shop (of the national chain variety) is installing a SECOND drive-thru lane. Two drive thru lanes? It seems we are peeved when we have to wait longer than 20 seconds for our burrito supreme.
Leaving Yellowstone park a few weeks ago after a long holiday weekend, I was tired. All I wanted after five hours of being stuffed in the back seat was to be set free. We were outside the gates of the park, in the final stretch to Bozeman, when out of nowhere, on a bridge over the Yellowstone River, we suddenly came to a dead stop.
On a bridge?
Seriously?
We were third in a line of cars - not too long - but long enough that I couldn't crane my chicken neck around to decipher what in the Hades was the hold up?
"Go around," I spouted to the chauffeur (a.k.a Sexy Hubby!)
He didn't move.
"Honey, really, go around, these yay-hoo's are probably just gazing at the river or some stupid thing."
Sexy Hubby begrudgingly began to steer the car into the opposite lane, when the cause for traffic jam became apparent. Or should I say non-parent.
Immediately, upon seeing the reason with my own eyes, I felt like a schmuck.
An impatient fool.
Immediately, shame-filled every cell.
I was so buggered by the stopped traffic, that I never - not for a nano-second - stopped to think beyond my own inconvenience of being stopped. Yet, as soon as I noticed the reason for the delay, I realized (with a gulp) that the considerate person in the front of the line was simply trying to help.
Help reunite the parent with her lost babe.
I hope this lesson is not lost on me.
I hope I will remember that it's not always something we can "see" but instead of reacting in a defiant "what-the-hell-is-going-on" manner, ask, "How can I help?"
To the lady in the Suburban who stopped, then turned around to help reunite mom and babe (who were on opposite sides of the river) I applaud you (with my head hung in shame over all the expletives that were reverberating inside my head during the stand-still on the bridge.)
I saw a bumper sticker in Bozeman recently that said, "You didn't move here to be in a hurry."
Indeed.
