Treading lightly, going gently

After reading several blogs, facebook pages and instagram posts on mindfulness and going gently, I have been thinking a lot about how we don’t really know anyone’s personal battles but our own. A snappy customer may have just received very bad news. The impatient driver may have just lost someone they love. We just don’t know. All we can do is try to go gently with each other and be as patient, happy and as generous as we can.

An opportunity arose for me today to do something for someone. There was a carer looking after a lady with a mental disability who was having a really rough time. The lady was screaming at the top of her lungs at her, swearing and calling her names and refusing to budge. The carer looked exhausted but kept her patience and her cool as she worked to bring the lady around.

I went to a nearby store and bought a bunch of flowers for the carer. When I went to walk towards her I suddenly felt a kind of fear – what if she had a go at me? what if it annoyed her? what if I actually made the situation worse? By this stage she had the lady calm and out of the store. I thought ‘stuff it’ and walked over to her. I put my arm on her shoulder and told her I thought she was doing an amazing job and gave her the flowers. The look on her face just warmed my heart. She actually looked like she was tearing up and straight away I knew I had done the right thing. That small gesture may be what gets her through an incredibly trying day. All I spent was $5 on a small bunch of flowers, but I wanted to acknowledge what an incredible job she was doing.

Wouldn’t the world be an amazing place if everyone helped each other? Everyone went gently with one another? Everyone stopped judging?

From today I vow to tread lightly with everyone I meet for I know nothing of the path they are treading…