The Field in Your Life

“And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.” ― Kahlil Gibran

I listened to a speaker once talk about a person's sphere of influence. A sphere of influence is that area or impact you can have on those that enter or pass through your life. Taken in its simplest form, this sphere is your family, friends, co-workers, people in the store you shop at, where you buy your gas, church and everything you do.

During these moments of interaction, how you speak, conduct yourself and the way you respond is a chance to impact another person's life. If you think about it, everywhere you go you create a sphere of influence.

As the saying goes "wherever you go, there you are", so is your ability to impact people.

What this means is that your influence and ability to impact people moves with you. In example, when I travel outside of the United States, many say to me that I will be out of my comfort zone or out of my environment.

But my environment is all around me where ever I go. I carry my own environment with me and those I meet are entering into my field as I like to call it. A field you may wonder?

Just know that as you move about in your daily life, wherever you go, you can have impact on others.

Try not to lose any opportunity to engage and create change. And stay inspired my friends.

Walk a Mile

Walk A Mile Photograph -Nada Frazier

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” -Jack Handey

There I was, driving to the funeral home, thinking about the passing of a friend. Road construction was blocking my right lane, so dutifully set my left turn signal on and began to move into the left lane. Yes, I thought I looked well enough but apparently it startled the gentleman and his wife.

I stopped as did the traffic due to the red light in front of us. Me partially in his lane and he pulled up along my side wildly yelling something at me. So I rolled down my window, as did he, to offer him an apology. Thus began a 60-second lecture on my driving habits, nearly killing his wife, and never taking the time to hear my apology.

His window went back up, the light turned green and traffic began to move again. As Murphy's Law dictates, I followed him for the next mile or so. It did not give me much of a chance to calm my nerves. But after he pulled into a shopping center, I began to think of my friend recently deceased and let the incident roll off my back like water from a duck.

Later that evening during a memorial service I reflected upon the incident among other things. I learned that one thing my departed friend would say is, "don't react, just respond." It seemed appropriate because unknowingly that is what I had tried to do; respond to the situation while the 'offended driver' reacted to the situation.

It reminds me that if we simply stop to consider the journey someone else might be on before 'reacting' maybe we will respond differently to the situation. In my life I have failed to do just that and later realized there was something else, another story to be told.

This particular incident does not excuse me from my poor driving decision. We each get distracted by life, our job, our relationships, our finances, our health and our smart phones. There are reasons for our behaviors and until we consider there might be other reasons, we are reacting in the dark. When we acknowledge the possibility of someone else, we can respond in the light.

It doesn't take literally 'walking a mile in someones shoes' to fully understand the impact of simply responding as opposed to reacting. But you will begin to live a more relaxed and happier life when you take others into consideration.

As for the upset driver, apologies for my abrupt driving as I was distracted. I also apologize because you may have been stressed over going to the mall. A presumption on my part but hey, its possible.