It's not me, it's you. Or is it?

I live right across the street from a church.  That means when I come home from church each week, I can't park anywhere near my house.  This aggravates me to no end!  It's bad enough that they take up their side of the street, their parking lot, all the side streets AND the school parking lot.  Do they have to park immediately in front of my house?  For all three services.   Today, I came home and there was a car parked in my grass.  Not an easy feat since he had to jump the curb to do that.  You'd think he would have noticed something like that.

So, I just went outside to walk the dog and the guy parked in my grass was getting something out of his car.  I toyed with saying something about being in the grass, but decided better.  I thought he was leaving.  Then I realized he was going back into his church!  We had made eye contact, and he turned and went back into his church.  Really?  No "sorry I'm parked in your grass" or "sorry I've been taking up your parking for 3 hours". My irritation started all over again.

This irritation grew as I walked the dog.  Everywhere I went, I encountered people coming out of this church, all wanting to pet my dog.  I just wanted them all to be gone. To go park at their own house, and leave me alone.  What a great person I am, huh?

As I was coming up the last block, I noticed a small woman getting out of her car.  There was a little girl with her. Then I saw she was also carrying a pretty large, sleeping toddler.  I watched for he to go into the house where her car was parked. Instead, she struggled down the street, carrying her sleeping child and trying to keep hold of the little girl.  She walked the whole way down the block, then half-way down the next street before she finally turned into her house.

I was angry for her.  These church people had parked in front of her house, too, majorly inconveniencing her.  Then I heard the voice.  "And you're angry because you had to walk across the street, all by yourself, carrying nothing but your purse."  I began to feel about an inch tall.

It's interesting how quickly my attitude can change when confronted by someone who could honestly be justified in their anger at the same event.  Now, I don't know what was going on in this woman's head, and that's not the focus of this blog.  It just helped me to look outside of myself for one minute.  It doesn't mean I'm not going to get ticked about the lack of Sunday parking.  But it does mean I will be more aware that I have no clue what is going on with other people.