Every school day, when I drop my kids off, someone in the car line is a jerk or idiot or both. This used to rile me up and I’d feel outraged at the injustices of car line. But recently I realized: what if the path to enlightenment is in car line? What if I stop letting other people steal my serenity over dumb things like car line? Someone is going to be rude and block the car line and make everyone wait while their prince or princess takes an absurdly long time to get out of the vehicle. I don’t have to let this rudeness snatch my serenity.
Other areas in my life where I’m working to not let people steal my serenity:
- When someone is snorting at hot yoga (like today)
- When people ignore the laws regarding stop signs and don’t let you take your turn because they are more important/busy/spaced out
- Fifth grade fundraising for end of year celebrations
I will have to keep striving to say calm in car line because man, it’s like one of Dante’s parenting circles of hell. But if I can stay calm there, I can carry that calm into other areas of my life. There are enough real sources of stress that erode my serenity. No sense letting the fake stress of car line steal it as well.