Happy Sunday!

“Life in the fast lane will surely make you loose your mind.”  ~Don Henley, Glen Frey, Joe Walsh.
I was driving to work early this week and was given new insight on my journey of self awareness.  The road I drive each day is a four lane road through a suburban area – one of those roads that it is tempting to speed on even though there are driveways, pedestrians, and cyclists.  I thought about how for years I drove down that road needing to be ahead of every other car that I encountered and I reflected on why that has changed for me in the past year with my now trying to live in awareness.
I was thinking about how the awareness of my ego’s controlling influence on my life had eliminated my ‘need to speed’.  I felt a realization hit my mind and travel to my heart – a brief moment of shame shook me.  I realized that during the years I had lived my life feeling un-worthy I would get behind the wheel of a car, drive fast, pass by other people, and feel good about myself.  The TRUTH that I am a good person, wife, daughter, mother, child of GOD was invisible to my mind, but, at the same time, my fantasy world of beating the next driver was satisfying. Such insanity!
Over the next day I also reflected on my perspective on the other, thinking about all those “crazy drivers” out there who upset me.  George Carlin put it perfectly once in his attempt to have us realize our insane personal perspective; as you pass the driver going too slow you yell out “Idiot”, to the driver who passes you by you yell “Maniac!”  I realized that like myself, those behaviors displayed by other drivers are not their identities.  This thought brought me much peace as I share the road with others, they are not their behavior as I am not mine.
A couple of days ago as I was watching a lecture by Caroline Myss on her CMED Institute website and what she said brought to mind my thoughts earlier in the week.  What Caroline said further emphasized the lesson my driving awareness taught me, “viewing yourself as always right means others are always wrong”.  This hit a nerve.  I was impacting others with my behavior!  It has never been my intention to go about my life hurting others. Caroline spoke of the impact we have on others by projecting negative energy on them and out into the world.  I now understand that as we try to elevate our own feelings of inadequacy about ourselves we are putting others down.
“To LOVE is to recognize yourself in another.” ~Eckert Tolle