Today I had the strangest encounter.

I was caught on the travelator behind 3 older people. A lady decided that I wasn’t moving fast enough and literally stood on me to get behind them. I said something, because that’s who I am. She lectured me on how there was a lane for overtaking and I wasn’t in it. I was literally standing in the middle patiently (and politely I might add) waiting for the old people to move. As I was standing there with a woman so close her handbag was swinging repeatedly hitting me in the ribs as she yelled at me. She announced I must be having a bad day to behave this way. I turned to her and announced that I was sorry she was a bitch. As I got to the top and walked off I listened her rant to no one about how unhappy a person I was. She continued to yell it until I was well out of sight. In that moment I realised, this was not about me at all. This woman was having a bad day and was projecting. I mean telling someone they must be having a bad day when they call you out for pushing them when you’re literally standing on them is bizarre at best.

At that moment I felt bad. I had no idea what this person was going through. I made a snap decision to call her a bitch. She deserved it. But how much compassion did I show her? I could have kept my mouth shut. Just smiled at her when she made an absurd statement. It was such an AH HA moment.

How much in our lives do we judge people without a single clue of what they are going through? Let’s face it when people behave in a particular way, very few people are bad people, so they must be going through something. Maybe it’s time we show people a bit more understanding. I know I wish people would do that with me when I’m behaving badly.