Driving around town running errands, doing the shopping and transporting back and forth to work all day everyday is time consuming. It could take hours maneuvering through the city to get where you need to be. Any person in their right mind would be completely frustrated when driving behind a slow driver when the speed limit is 25 or greater. If you add a heavy traffic jam or declining weather, and rode rage could set in. But it is times like these that we should take in some deep breaths and re-examine the situation. If we do not maintain our self control we can do more harm than good.
Nine times out of ten there are some perfectly good reasons for slow vehicles congesting the roads. And most times drivers are too distracted or irritated that they do not pay attention to what is actually happening on the road. That was the case for Hailey, a busy mom, wife and blog writer.
Hailey ended up behind a driver on the road who was learning how to drive a stick shift engine truck. She had no idea that the driver was learning how to drive nor did she see the sign in the window warning other drivers of their slow movement at first. Some drivers are preoccupied with their own distractions that they don’t realize they are causing the heavy traffic flow that is created but this particular driver wanted everyone to be aware of the delay. A sign was posted in the window of the truck warning other drivers of the delay. When Hailey finally saw it after many levels of frustration, it changed the way she responded. She calmed down immediately and her own response put her into a reality check.
She wondered if she had not seen the sign in the window, would she have the same reaction. She recognized her frustration levels diminish immediately after reading the sign and her compassion took over. Hailey went to Facebook to share her experience with her followers and to share a much needed reminder.
Angry and frustrated people hurt other people and you can see it as it comes out in their actions. No one truly knows what others are faced with day to day. Even when driving, we can forget what a person is going through and may take our frustrations out on them.
It takes wisdom and patience to understand the pain or depression of a lot of people on the road and most times we cannot see it with the naked eye. Instead of loosing our cool, having a positive outlook to the situation can make all the difference. What we see visually sometimes do not give us the whole picture of what another person is feeling or experiencing at that moment.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and we might understand what they are going through. Everyone learns at their own pace and if we keep this in mind patience, love and understanding outweighs frustration, impatience and anger.
