What if you were another me ?

When I was travelling back from New York recently with my Mum, I forgot my mobile (cell) phone as I had plugged it in to the socket in the hotel foyer to charge while we were waiting for our ride to the airport. I realised I had forgotten it when we got to security at JFK.

In my family there is a history of people being pretty angry when one of us 'messes up' in this way. So I was amazed to see that the moment I started giving myself a hard time, I calmly put down that thought and then dealt with what needed to be dealt with (complex process of getting Kevin the driver to liaise with Pablo the doorman and taxi-ing my phone to JFK at great expense!) instead of going down that road.

Thankfully I was with my Mum who was really calm and sat with me while I waited and let me use her phone to organise everything. I was watching her as it all unfolded and not once did she get cross with me.

And then I noticed. What if I treated everyone as another me when they did something wrong (just like I think Mum was doing) - what if I pretended that it was me who had 'done it' - what would I do then ? How would I feel about them ? What would I say ? What would I do ?



I know we give ourselves a hard time (not only others), but if I could find the compassion in my heart to treat myself kindly when I mess up and then do the same for everyone else, that would be pretty wonderful.

The other thing that I cottoned on to is that maybe because I have learned not to give myself a hard time, my Mum didn't have to give me a hard time either. Maybe we're connected more deeply than we think.