The lesson I learned from the very angry woman at the supermarket

Storytime. This one's a bit random and a bit more personal than usual, but it's been sitting with me all week and I feel like it's worth sharing. Make yourself some tea and let's go.

What actually happened

I was standing in a supermarket queue with literally two things in my hands. Very in-and-out situation. I'd also just had a blood test and wasn't feeling amazing, just for context.

The woman in front of me in the line just leaves. Fully disappears for a solid five minutes. This wasn't a long line by the way, it was two people ahead of me and then I was last. So naturally, I step forward, because that's how lines work.

She comes back with a bunch of stuff, looks at me, and goes "no, I'm before you." And I'm standing there holding my two sad little items like, okay????

I calmly said hey, you left the line, I've literally just got these two things, it'll take two seconds. And she just got angry. Like properly angry. Called me a name, which I won't repeat. Very dramatic for something that could've been resolved in thirty seconds if she'd just stood behind me. I was literally the last person in the line.

The two versions of me that showed up

At that point I could feel two versions of myself waking up. One was like, excuse me, absolutely not, we are not being spoken to like this. And the other one was just watching. Quiet, calm, slightly curious.

Something in me decided not to escalate it. I said my piece, she huffed, she went ahead, we both paid and walked out at basically the same time.

And I could feel it. That little simmer of frustration, that ego voice that wants to replay the moment and win it differently. You know the one.

But instead of feeding it, I just watched it. Like okay, hi ego, I see you, you're a bit worked up. And I used the five minute walk home as a little mindfulness experiment. Just noticing what was coming up, letting it pass, not gripping onto it.

The shift

The more I sat with it, the more obvious it became that this woman was just not having a great time. She looked angry before I even said anything. This wasn't about me.

And then I had this thought: if her snapping at me gave her even a tiny bit of relief from whatever she's carrying, that's actually okay. Like genuinely okay. I'm even maybe happy about it. Not in a "please walk all over me" way, but in a "I don't need to hold onto this to prove anything" way. In a "my ego has no control over me" way. There's a difference.

I'm fine. I'm safe. I went home to a life I love. So why would I carry this with me?

That's when it flipped from "I'm letting this go" to "I'm actually okay that it happened because in some way, she may have found some relief."

The real takeaway

I think sometimes we forget that not every moment needs to be won. Some moments are just there to practise who we want to be. And this one, for me, was a little reminder that I can choose calm, even when part of me really wants to choose chaos lol.

I'm not pretending to be Buddha. I get very upset at people like everyone does, and I've been known to snap for sure (sorry fam). But it is something I'm working on, and I always want to choose light.

That's my very deep, very philosophical takeaway from a supermarket queue. Life is funny like that.

You don't have to carry every little thing that bumps into you.