How We are Effected by What is Around Us

I was walking home yesterday from an appointment. I like to walk and the mile or so from point A to point B is usually very pleasant. But yesterday it was different. It was raining and a little chilly. That in and of itself wouldn’t have bothered me. The trouble came when you added other people to the mix. People in cars who were in a hurry to get nowhere.

The speed limit on the road I was on is 35 mph. I imagine the cars were doing at least 50 mph- in the rain. The sidewalk distance to the road varies from 1 foot to 5 feet. As the cars are racing past me, I felt my blood pressure rise. I realized I was becoming angry at how senseless they were being (to me at least). The real winner was the guy who hit a huge puddle right beside me. I refrained from yelling.

The dangerousness of the situation aside, the visual and auditory stimuli of this situation unnerved me. The same way I hate to be awoken from sleep with a loud or jarring noise (I believe most of us feel this way).

Ironically, I had just been to a domestic abuse meeting that day. As I listened to the educators I thought specifically about the verbal and emotional abuse that people live with everyday in their homes and workplaces. That constant berating and negativity takes a strong hold on your psyche and chips away at it little by little.

That meeting and my experience walking home have more in common than you might think. It’s about putting yourself (or allowing yourself) to be in constantly detrimenting situations- whether you realize it or not. I could have ignored my blood pressure rising and my anger building on that walk. But I didn’t. I identified it and then began trying to see how I could remedy it. The easiest answer is to not take that same walk/path again due to the nature of the speeding cars. It’s a shame. I’ll miss the beauty that also comes with that walk as I pass the park and forest. But, a little bit of beauty at a dangerous price is no prize. There is a lesson in life.