Embrace the Snake

You’re probably thinking, ‘no thank you’. Snakes are slimy, scary, and potentially dangerous. To some yes, and to others they’re beautiful with gorgeous markings and textured skin. How do you see the snake?

I was at the Farmers Market the other day queued up for some cucumbers. The line was a bit all over the place. No one really knew who was next. A lady came up to join the zig zag line and asked where’s the end of it. I told her, “Behind me…” I smiled, she smiled. Then, there was some confusion regarding another woman’s order who was in front of me. Notwithstanding this, we all simply waited for the confusion to pass. Next thing you know the woman in front of me turned around, bumped me by mistake and apologized. “No problem”, I said. I smiled. Another gal commented to the person in front of me and myself that she’s sorry she’s taking so long. We replied that we’re “not in a rush”. At this point, one individual remarked that it’s so lovely to be on line where no one is hurrying. She began to share how nice it would be if everyone took more time in their lives to be calm, spend time with one another and even share phone calls to catch up. I responded by putting a cucumber to my ear like we were having a phone call. She did the same and we all cracked up.

Conversely, later that day I was at a supermarket that has an elevator which goes to the parking lot. When the elevator doors opened before I could exit a woman was pushing her cart onto the elevator and almost ran me over. She didn’t wait to see if anyone was coming off before she forced herself onto the lift.

We all have the snake within us. On any given day, we are gorgeous to some, while upsetting to others. The trick is to embrace the snake within. When we do this, we’ll have more patience and less judgment for ourselves and our fellow man. Furthermore, we will face less stress and have more joy. Embrace the snake.

Take care of yourselves and each other.