Travellers

Other people.

Other people are traffic.  Other people fill up the shopping centre on the weekend.  Other people pack the tube train carriage.  Other people make stupid decisions.

They are all in my way, because my journey is the most important.  They don’t understand what I’m thinking or the unique set of problems I’m dealing with.

But look around that tube train.  At the faces in the shopping mall.  At the other drivers in the traffic jam.  Every one of those other people is dealing with shit too.  

They had to shop today because they worked 16 hours every other day this week.

They are trying to care for an elderly relative.  

They are worried about their kids’ education.  

They are dreading the call from the doctor’s surgery. 

Their credit card is almost maxed-out.

We all have struggles and when we start to see other people like this, we begin to have a little compassion for one another.  A little more understanding.  A little more kindness.  And that’s surely the beginning of greater peace and healing, both in our lives and theirs?

We see ourselves as the main character in the story of our lives.  Almost everyone else is (to paraphrase a gaming term) a non-playable inconvenience.  But in reality, we are all just travellers, negotiating this complex journey called life in the best way we can.

Imagine if we saw one another through a lens of greater understanding?  Imagine that we all had a little more kindness and compassion towards one another? Imagine if we saw “us” more than we saw “I”?

What problems might that solve?

What possibilities could it open up?

I don’t know the answer, and I know it isn’t an easy thing to do.  But I’m willing to try. Could you?

Go well, fellow traveller.

Photo by mauro mora on Unsplash