July 11, 2023

              While traveling long distance to visit my son and his family, we were on the freeway in an area where there were only two lanes. I was in the right lane and a semi-truck pulled up alongside me in the left lane to pass. The speed limit had changed, but I forgot to speed up. As the truck started to pass, I remembered that I ought to be going faster and so increased my speed to the new limit. As I sped ahead of the semi truck and then saw the driver pull into the right lane behind me, I was caught in a moment of reflection for the numerous times I have been driving and witnessed the same thing: As I go to pass someone, they speed up to either match mine or go faster. In those moments it is so typical of me to think that the driver is just prideful, or that they have some agenda against me, or any other story I can think of to cast them in a negative light. This moment helped me see a different side to that story… maybe it’s always been that simple, that my starting to pass them reminded them that they weren’t going fast enough. I am excited to be able to go through the next similar experience and pass the test this time by not having negative feelings towards them.