Smile in Serenity

There are people who cut in line, are rude in my workplace, cut me off in traffic, talk loudly about obnoxious things, saying things that hurt my feeling, interrupt me, and so on. There are times that I think these offenses are violations of the way people should act. Life won’t be very good if I let these offensive people get to me.

So I imagine floating down a stream in a raft, and the others are just twigs and leaves floating past me one way or another on this stream. They don’t have to treat me a certain way, because they’re just twigs. And so I serenely float down this stream, not worrying about how the twigs float around me - they are just twigs floating by. Be nice to the twigs though.

I try to empathize with rude person, and realize that they’re angry, or scared, or both. They are being rude as a coping mechanism for their fear or instability. And so, mentally (and once in a while physically), I give them a hug. I have compassion for this scared person, because I too am often scared. We’re the same. We need a hug, some compassion, a little love. And then smile in serenity, armed with the comforting knowledge that I am superior to the rest of the world.