Wednesday Wish (144); A Good & Kind World

photo via izismile.com via googleimages

He was angry. He was driving so closely behind me that I could see the tightness in his face, the way he kept his eyes hard, the lids more closed than open, his mouth a thin emotionless line. He gripped his steering wheel with the same tightness, his hands at the top of the circle so I could see those, too. I wondered if he was off in his imagination, fighting an unfinished fight, so I tapped my breaks. He braked, too, but without waking from his angered slumber. Instead, he moved closer still. His eyes even more determined.

The man I met on the road today was stuck in a state of being. A state of anger. And as hard as I tried to avoid it, it was starting to suck me in, too. Stop tailgating me! What is your problem? Get off my ass! I was falling. And fast. I took a deep breath.

I don’t want to be in this state.

I don’t want to feel anger.

I know the world is a good and kind place

And I know the only way to live in a good and kind world

Is to make it so, myself.

I stopped the car at the next stoplight

And I walked back to his car, to his angry eyes.

He rolled the window down.

Half way . . .

“I know you are a good man.” I said, in my most authentic and tender voice. “And I know . . . know . . . you have a good heart. But when you follow me so closely I don’t get that feeling. I feel bad. And I know you don’t mean to make me feel bad. Because you are a good man. A kind man." I reached out and squeezed his shoulder with all the love I could find in my heart. "If you want the world to be kind to you," I said, before I left, "you have to be kind to the world.” 

And do you know what he said in return?

“Bless you. Bless you. Bless you,” over and over again, his eyes looking at me with pure gratefulness, no longer tight and angry, but soft and filled with tears.

*          *          *

When the world is angry, we can join up forces and fight it off with still more anger.

Or we can take a breath and draw from our hearts, to give love to those who need it the most.

I choose to live in a good and kind world

And I know the only way to live in such a world

Is to make it so, myself.