Yesterday I was driving with my husband when I heard him say “Nice, really nice” in a sarcastic tone that made it clear what he was looking at was not nice at all. I looked around to see what had caught his attention and saw a sticker in a car window that was at about 2-feet wide and 18-inches tall (so it was pretty big) of a hand flipping the bird. My immediate visceral response was anger. “What a jerk” I thought to myself and I could feel the adrenaline start to pulse through my veins. My husband was similarly affected and the energy in our car was beginning to feel very angry. All of this because of a sticker that some stranger had put on his (the driver was a man) car.
Suddenly I thought of one of my favorite quotes: “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” -Wayne Dyer. I took a few deep breaths and said to my husband in the most calm voice I could muster, “You know honey, this is a perfect example of that quote I love. It’s that dude’s karma to drive around with that sticker, but the anger that we are allowing to take over our afternoon…that’s OUR karma.” And you know what? The anger immediately vanished. When we realized that we were letting his thoughtlessness affect our day, and giving this stranger POWER over us, our attitudes quickly shifted from anger to sympathy. “Can you imagine all the bad karma that guy is accumulating driving around with that sticker,” I said to my husband. “Yeah, he must be really angry all day long. That’s too bad,” he replied. Our anger had shifted to one of sympathy. It was a really profound lesson.
Wishing you Health and Happiness! Go out and be a spark in the world!
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