Learning How To Transform a Situation with Acting, Not Reacting

She snapped at me with a glare when I was waiting to be seated in the restaurant. There was a flickering thought reaction of snapping back but a little voice inside stopped me in my tracks…. “Feel being in her shoes.” OK. I did for a millisecond and it didn’t feel too great. Suddenly, compassion arrived on my inner landscape. When she seated me and had another abrupt, unpleasant expression in addition to blurting out “It’s been a long day,” I was able to acknowledge her ‘long day.’ “Long days are not easy. I apologize if I did something wrong.” She suddenly switched from the grumpy channel to one of direct eye contact and blurted out, “Oh, no, it’s me. I am so sorry. Short staffed today and having to do everything from hosting to waitress to taking the payments.” She said she was sorry three more times! I sympathized with her wearing so many hats at once. After that, in-between all her responsibilities, she came back to my table SEVEN times just to chat, asking me about moisturizer I used, wondering about moods and the weather (I shared my uptake of D3 right now) and several other topics. We had superb connection and it was extremely meaningful for me to see that the choice I made created an amazing immediate transformation for both of us. Really grateful for that little angel voice inside that kept me from joining the grumpy channel. #earthisheaven@67 #compassionhasmagic