A life lesson from 16 turkeys
TL;DR
If we can be patient enough to slow down and get present to moments that otherwise seem like inconveniences, there might just be a gift beneath them for us.
As I was racing home from dropping my kid off at preschool this morning, I had the most incredible experience.
There were 16 turkeys standing in the middle of the road.
I kid you not. 16!!
My first thought (which, admittedly, I feel a little shameful sharing with you) was: get out of my way!
But then I watched them for a second. And I thought: why should they get out of my way? They have just as much of a right to be here as I do.
This second thought required me letting go of, like, 3 very loud voices swirling around in my head, all about me not getting my way this morning…
I won’t have time to make breakfast
I won’t have time to return those client emails before my meeting
I’ll be late to my meeting
All because these turkeys were doing their thing on the road.
What was amazing was that there was this other car facing me on the other side of the road — the turkeys were blocking both of us; the driver was on her way up the hill to drop off her kid and I was leaving.
We could have honked or moved our cars, I suppose.
But neither of us did. In some strange unspoken agreement from inside our cars, this other mom and I made a silent pact to wait it out and let the turkeys take their time.
That they did.
Or so it seemed. It was probably two minutes total, but it felt like twenty.
This was an incredible test of patience on both our parts, because, boy, did I need to get home and start my work day and, boy, I bet she was ready to drop her kid off at school and get to wherever she was going next.
But then I realized…my work day had already started.
This was actually my most important lesson for today: make time for the turkeys.
Quiet the noise inside my head about being productive and getting things done on time in the way that I had planned, and instead, choose to surrender to these moments in life when things don’t go our way.
If we can be patient enough to slow down and get present to moments that otherwise seem like inconveniences, there just might be a gift beneath them for us.
This, indeed, was a little life lesson waiting for me to be practiced today.
But I had to choose it.
I could have honked or started driving closer, and the turkeys would've probably scattered off the road. But I just couldn’t. Maybe it’s how fragile I’m feeling these days with everything going on in the world. I dunno. I just wanted the turkeys to have their moment. And, in doing so, I inadvertently gifted myself one.
After the turkeys went about their day, I made it home and recited this Buddhist prayer to myself while still sitting in the car. It's a prayer that I recited at the end of every yoga class I took at Om Yoga in NYC over the course of 12 years, but I hadn't thought about it in ages.
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings never be parted from freedom’s true joy.
May all beings dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
So grateful to come back to this prayer right now.
Thank you, turkeys.