With the Grace of God, i was blessed to see the plank in my eye yesterday. A rare and exquisite gift.
The school crossing guard made a presumptuous remark about my patience in waiting for the light to change so i could cross the busy intersection.
Thirty minutes before she arrived, the crossing light for walking wasn’t working.
By now though, the police and crossing guards were working together (like they do every school morning) to manage the busy intersection near Magic Kingdom.
Then i saw the police officer directing traffic through a red light so i asked the guard if the traffic lights were not working properly? If they weren’t i would simply use good judgement to cross, rather than wait for the light.
She said, “You just need to be patient and wait.”
Because i was on the tail end of the nine-mile run, i was actually enjoying the extended wait/break.
i got defensive (blindly) with her and went on a direct, matter of fact riff about why i wasn’t being impatient.
Then it hit me, i was impatient with her presumption.
And i didn’t need to be.
In fact, because i (blindly) wasn’t patient with her – and caught myself – i was able to apologize and ask for her forgiveness.
It was a glorious lesson in humility and consistency.
And then i worried about how often i don’t catch myself.
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On April Fool’s Day 2009, jeff noel began writing five daily, differently-themed blogs (on five different sites). It was to be a 100-day self-imposed “writer’s bootcamp”, in preparation for writing his first book. He hasn’t missed a single day since.
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