Last week I was headed to a meeting. Another person thwarted my attempt to arrive on time and tardiness shape sifted into irritation. I actually practiced complaining to the people I would meet with, who had not the slightest culpability for my inconvenience. But they would do as a scape goat.
When I arrived the
criticism stayed perched on my tongue while we waited for the fourth person. Presently he popped his head in the door to say he had a conflict and could not stay. This jumpstarted the third person to grouse in much the same way I had planned to. Seeing her was like seeing myself in a mirror and I was not pleased. Suddenly I was hugely relieved to have kept quiet.
Later that day I had a quick consult with someone I was doing a task for. I had begun to feel ornery about
how the project was unfolding and ran through just how I would express my discontent to him. A few minutes into the conversation he confided to me about some criticism he had been handed, and how it was depleting the energy needed to continue. In that brief interchange I saw myself, and how close I had come to being the kvetch.
The ability to see ourselves as if in a mirror is remarkable. Perhaps it is the very ladder that enables us to aspire to a better version of
ourselves.
I suppose indigenous people who have neither glass nor reflective pools find ways to get the egg off their face and their hair brushed. But I am grateful for an honest look at myself before the tangles and dirt become permanent.
