Being an ideal mother and loving wife, keeping the house clean and comfortable, and even going to work is a rather difficult task.
Add to this a few more small children, and then the words ‘silence’ and ‘peace’ will disappear from the description of your daily life.
All this is very familiar to Hayley from our story. Every day brings her new trials and difficulties that leave an imprint in her life.
One day, Hailey was driving to work, but got stuck behind a slow-moving car. She could hardly contain her displeasure at this.
After all, Hayley was in a hurry so as not to be late for work, and she did not want to lose time at all, stuck behind a car that was moving much slower than the speed limit.
But when Haley stopped at a red traffic light, she noticed a note that was affixed to the rear window of that very slow car.
After reading what was written on it, Hailey decided to share her thoughts on her Thoughts, Dots and Tots blog page. She says that on that day her worldview changed dramatically.
Here is what she wrote:
‘When I was driving to work, I was behind one car. A note taped to the rear window read: ‘Learning to drive with a manual transmission. Sorry for the slow ride.’
‘When I read these words, I stopped being nervous about being stuck behind this car. In fact, the driver handled the driving quite well, despite the slow driving.
‘Then I asked myself: if this note was not on the window, would I still be angry and worried? I’m sure yes.’
‘We do not know what is going on in each of our lives. We do not carry posters and signs telling about our difficulties and problems. We don’t put labels on clothes like ‘I’m getting a divorce’ or ‘My child died’ or ‘I have cancer.’
‘If we knew what is going on in the life of each of us, we would treat everything with greater understanding.’
‘But why in order to treat each other well, we need to know how a person feels?! We must do good, no matter the circumstances.’
‘Let’s be a little more tolerant, kinder and more compassionate towards others.’
The handwritten note really left a mark on Hailey’s worldview. She could still be angry and nervous while driving, but instead, she chose to let go of her anger and frustration by taking a deep breath and remaining calm.