I’m hoping I’m not the only one.

You know, not the only one to feel like blocking people when the traffic merges with relatively orderly precision into one lane and one driver decides to bypass everyone, scoot right up to the front and squeeze in all of ten cars ahead of everyone else who’s been waiting patiently, or not so patiently, in line…

It happened to me yesterday. I was on my way downtown to meet a girlfriend for dinner and suddenly my route was blocked with a big sign saying — oh no you don’t. You’re not going the way you planned. And yes, you probably will be late but hey! It’s Calgary. We get to construct whenever we want to.

Okay, so the sign wasn’t quite that explicit but the road I wanted to take was closed. And so, I waited my turn and merged into the left lane. And then, the guy behind goes whipping by, all the way to the front where the construction sign stood blocking the lane. It was pretty obvious other drivers weren’t too impressed either because no one was letting him in and by the time I got the 10 or so car lengths to the front, there he still was, trying to nudge his way in.

I took a breath.

I didn’t really want to let him in.

I sighed.

Seriously Louise? One whole car length is going to make such a huge difference?

I took another breath.

Bless him. Forgive me.

I let him in. And the car behind him.

I was raised Catholic you know. Penance is good for the soul.

And the difference is…

Not letting him would have played on my psyche. The chatter of ‘you shoulda, coulda, why didn’t you?’ would have been incessant. And, the story I would have created to justify not letting him in would have interfered with my evening with my girlfriend because I would have made it all about his bad behaviour rather than my lack of compassion, patience, giving way etc.

In the end, I was only 2 or 3 minutes late meeting my girlfriend and I never did get around to telling the story. Instead, we spent an evening talking about heart matters, about our lives, our children, what we’ve learned from relationships and their aftermath, what we’ve experienced in living true to ourselves.

It was a great evening with a wonderful woman and I felt better for letting someone in. It may not have made much of a difference in their life, but it sure makes a difference in mine.

Namaste.