Moments of Grace

This morning, I was driving to the train station when I saw that someone was tailgaiting me. In fact, she nearly prevented me from getting in the left turn lane, as she started veering left behind me before we'd even reached the turn lane, forcing me to immediately move left as well.

After we turned, I got over as quickly as possible to let her pass, and she immediately zoomed up to ride the butt of the next person. I was going the speed limit, but there were enough cars on the road that she never got too far ahead of me, despite rapidly changing lanes. She turned into the train station parking lot right ahead of me and sped around the corner into a spot, while I parked like I normally do. I walked down to the corner crosswalk while she decided to run across four lanes of traffic and cut across a parking lot.

We got to the train station at the same time.

I thought very seriously about saying something to her. Something like, "Excuse me, there was no need to tailgate me, since as you can see, we both got here with plenty of time to spare." I thought about whether it was likely to do any good, to change her mind or her behavior.

In the end, I just said a prayer of gratitude. That I am able to be at peace and know that I can take the time to drive courteously and follow the rules of the road and still make it where I'm going on time. And that even if I'm late and miss my train, it will be fine. It won't be the end of the world, and I won't have made myself stressed out and anxious in the process by worrying too much.

It took me a while to learn that lesson. I hope she is able to learn it someday.