Make Room

⭐️Me and my daughter got into the car to travel to my sons school for pick up. I was aware I was tight on time to make it for a not-so-easy task. A few minutes into the drive I see that the side-view mirror on the right side of the car was popped in towards the car (not damaged, just in space saver mode). This is handy, but not the mode to drive in! I was on the freeway and couldn’t change anything about the mirror position. Instead, I quickly postured myself to use every line of sight possible to support my 5-lane city interstate driving. I was attempting to make up for the lack. When I took the exit to their school I needed to merge to the right, and travel three lanes over to make my turn. While my blinker was on and I was doing anything I could to safely maneuver my vehicle across the lanes, my head was pivoting front, side, back, side, front. In this process I decided to slow down.

My assumption was that I would start hearing horns, seeing disgruntled expressions, and observe the skidding of people whipping their vehicles around mine. But instead, the dominate experience I had was as if the people driving behind me, knew. It was as if they knew I was experiencing a challenge, and knew I could not see effectively. But it wasn’t just that they knew. It was that in their (perceived) knowing they chose to yield and pardon me rather than ridicule. Their yielding behind me actually created a shield for me. I made it safely to the school that day and have thought about this experience since.

What did I learn? 1) If I feel challenged from known limitations hindering me, slow down my speed in the most routine processes. Operating at my normal speed through my normal process while aware of limiting factors hindering me can be dangerous. 2) If I am in a position that gives me perspective to see someone’s challenge, yield and make room for them while they navigate forward. When I respond to them in this way it will serve toward their safety.⭐️