Day 70 of Your Year to Wellness: Avoiding Anger

Avoid the Anger of Others and Step in The Light

Yesterday, I got on a crowded plane and noticed a man who had challenges with mobility. A woman I took to be his wife was by his side lovingly guiding him to his seat. She wore a pink breast cancer survivor shirt decked out with ribbons and a survivor scarf. Her short baby-fine blonde hair lay beautifully and I imagined the man brushing it for her.

The woman escorted the man to his seat, kissed his cheek and told him that she’d be in the back thinking of him. Their love was the ‘til-death-due-us part kind and I was moved to tears. The tinnitus ringing in my ears became the music for their love story and I was grateful even for it.

I looked down at my ticket and noticed that I was to be seated next to the man and I smiled at the way Love works. “You can have my seat.” I happily told the woman. She responded by saying, “But I’m in coach.” I told her that that was okay. I wanted to say that their Love was too beautiful to separate. I wanted to tell her that theirs was the kind of love that kept the Universe in balance but I couldn’t.

They both thank me profusely but the flight attendant had been watching and he proclaimed loudly how nice my gesture was, but he didn’t stop there.

With all of the sarcasm he could muster, he said. “Oh my, isn’t it so nice that you would give up your seat on this lo-o-o-ng 40 minute flight.”

I told him that I have done the same on 6 hour flights and that any act of kindness should make his flight bit easier. He rolled his eyes and I went to my seat which was just one row behind first class.

Just before he handed out drinks and snacks from the “special” snack basket in first class, that same flight attendant made a show of closing the curtain between the two cabins. He looked at me as he did it and smirked.

Earlier this week I shared The Practice and so yesterday, I employed it. As I did, I felt a lightness come over me and the man’s attitude just did not matter. In my mind I saw the couple dancing and laughing together and they were Love.

My mind wandered to the flight attendant and I imagined that his heart had recently been broken and I understood his pain. It was the kind of pain that can’t endure joy as it’s a constant reminder of one’s lack.

The forty minutes had turned into more than an hour because of weather and a ground stop, but the time went by fast. As I got off the plane, the couple thanked me again, and the flight attendant said, “You try to have a nice day.”

There are some people who can’t stand it when things are good. These are the people who will make things wrong just to prove that they are right. We all know them and have them in our lives because they are plentiful but here’s what I know:

·         Jesus said, “The poor you will have with you always.” He was talking about the heartbroken and poor in spirit. These people have come to expect nothing but bad and so when they see good, they despise it.

·         My mother used to say, “If John jumps off of a bridge will you jump with him?” In other words, don’t allow the misbehavior of others to be your guide.

·         A negative vibration cannot dwell with a positive one; it will change or leave.

·         When you encounter someone who has been hurt, send them joy.

·        Love never fails

I needed the love of this couple before me, we all do. I once asked the comedian Drew Carey how he was able to perform after someone who had a great set. He smiled his Drew smile and told me to step in their light.

The couple did for me what I needed to see, the flight attendant was merely a distraction so instead of being distracted, I stepped in their light of Love.

Be you, Be kind, Be in the Light

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Oder the book A Year to Wellness and step in the light