The Yoga of a Parking Ticket
An unwelcome bit of mail arrived today. I had forgotten all about the special “souvenir” of my day trip to Monterrey while in California this summer. Even though I paid to park in one of the city garages, I managed to choose one of the spots marked “no parking” to leave my car in while taking in the touristy sights.
How does this relate to yoga? At first, fuming over seeing that the city employees had denied my request to rescind the ticket, I saw no relation to yoga.
“Bloody h&!!… They’re gonna make me pay it” I thought. “I didn’t intentionally park in a no parking spot… why couldn’t they let this one slide?”
After reluctantly dismissing the approach of just not paying the ticket, I began to plot how I would make it most painful to them – my response to their hospitality.
Send pennies? That would make them work. Nah, it would also be a lot of work for me.
Pay in Australian dollars? They never did stipulate American dollars, and I’ve got enough here to pay the ticket. Could be fun, but the Aussie dollar is almost on par with Yankee money. Hardly worth the hassle.
I could send another letter of protest along with my payment. Hmm, I might feel better for a few minutes, but the first plea fell on deaf ears so why should I spend my energy on that.
Ahha! Send a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. Yeh, right. I’ve lived in areas with parking shortages before, and parking violators didn’t get a whole lot of sympathy. Why should I expect any different in Monterrey?
Once my daydreams subsided, I realized the best option is to pay with my credit card – at least I’ll save 41 cents on postage and get some airline miles by using plastic.
As I headed toward my computer to pay the dreaded fine, I noticed an opportunity.
An opportunity to reflect.
How do I react when I’m not perfect? How do I react when others aren’t perfect, or when situations don’t meet my expectations?
Do I let my emotions cloud my perception? Am I quick to become defensive or self righteous?
In this case, yes, yes and yes.
Was my response better than it would have been 10 years ago? (yes)
Could it have been better? Absolutely.
But of course, my response was perfect just as it was. Who am I to define perfect?
It was, it is, and that’s that. From my knothole, who am I to say what is perfect and what is not? Who am I to judge?
The best I can do is observe.
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Great piece, it’s good to hear someone admit that they are not perfect and that there is always room for improvement!
If we all took time to take a more honest look at ourselves now and again…..
We may be surprised or maybe a bit peeved with ourselves at what we discover but at least we would come to terms with our faults and be able to set about putting them straight.