I went to the grocery store with my children, being 4 and 2 it is always a fun experience. The battle of everything they want and should not have, acquiescing here and there. My daughter especially of late is feeling a sense of pride of what she picked out from the store.
One of the cashiers, I have seen them a few times over the past weeks. Quite clearly they are struggling with the job. Over a handful of visits I have observed their co-workers and customers agitated with this cashier. It is negative energy you can very easily sense. Presumably impatience, frustration at the amount of small talk they are making vs. the progress in scanning the groceries. I also know they are doing their best.
As an aside: slow down. What is the hurry? Everyone is in a rush to get to the next thing. Is the “next thing” really worth rushing toward? Imagine if we all used those extra five minutes it is taking in the checkout line to be still and be present. For those who believe they do not have time to be still, you are missing all of these precious moments to do exactly that.
I came across this today in my daily ACIM reading:
When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.
T-8.III.4:1-5
Something I have felt for a very long time that has become further amplified now that I am a father: whenever I see someone, particularly someone who is having a challenge; it could be homelessness, addiction, physical, emotional, I see a child. I see them as four years old. Carefree, loving, full of spirit, their whole life ahead of them, until life as we know it brings it all crashing down. Some more than others. I see this person in that way.
It is a fundamental difference between someone going through the spiritual motions and someone who has the spark of the Spirit. You cannot walk this path alone, you must find it through others. You either extend love or project fear. You either find joy in that moment or you suffer. You extend grace, or you project animosity.
This does not mean you have to befriend that person, have dinner with them, or agree with them. It means you love them and accept they are on their path, just like you. We get caught in the picking and choosing of who is worthy of love and peace and who is not. Through this, we then believe that we can also be the subject of that same picking and choosing, that we can also be unworthy of love and peace in our lives.
Take a deep breath, slow down and love one another. The world is counting upon it.
See yourself in Love, as I see you.
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