The Bower Blog

Walking in Someone Else's Shoes

I am ashamed to admit that the last few years, I have become an impatient person.  I had my eyes opened yesterday and can say that this impatience will hopefully disipate because of what happened.  Let me explain.

I was in my vehicle trying to make a left hand turn into the Sunnybrook Plaza at Bayview and Eglinton.  If you know this plaza, you will know that it is extremely busy and you play chicken with your life as you turn into it.  Cars really zip westbound along Eglinton.  Consequently, it is often a long wait to turn in. 

I have had some distressing troubles the past few weeks so while waiting for westbound cars to clear,  I missed a 20 second opportunity to turn into the plaza, with a few waiting cars behind me.  A fellow in a pick up truck started beeping and screaming at me from outside his window-it's quite obvious he wasn't having a great day and neither was I.  I had lost my wallet in the same plaza and was going to look for it (good luck!)  Anyway, I didn't say anything, turned into the parking lot and parked.  This guy zipped up beside me as I was exiting my car and started screaming.  It was my final breaking point....okay, so I started crying.  He was so alarmed by this behaviour that he got out of his vehicle (not yet parked) and apologized. 

I guess I'm telling you this story because I think of how often I have sighed behind someone in a line up at a grocery store as they were fumbling for change, or I've been mad about a car that misses a turn and I'm stuck in an intersection dodging vehicles or just in the rush of life, I've snapped at someone that perhaps was having their own bad day. 

Until we walk in someone else's shoes, we don't know what is going on in their life that may make them a little more distracted than usual.  I hope this incident makes me a little more tolerant, a little more patient and just a little kinder.....

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

 

Our Country, Our Province

I am compelled to write this, simply because we are fresh off a provincial election and my thoughts are stimulated as a result.  I have mentioned here on numerous occasions that I am not a political animal; far from it, don't necessarily understand any of it-but here's the thing.  Despite global unrest, politically, economically and socially, our system here in Ontario and Canada appears to work. 

Toward the end of our provincial election, I started to see ads whereby Mr. McGinty, our provincial leader (honestly, don't know what party it is) was saying things like (paraphrasing): "I am not the most popular guy around because of some hard choices we as Ontarians had to make, but...."  He then went on to describe, with supporting documentation in the right corner of the screen, the state of our hospitals (18 new openings, more nurses, less wait times), the state of our education (all day kindergarten) and our job situation (more in Ontario than all of the U.S. in June 2011). 

I bring this up because in the last year I have been privy to our health system on more occasions than I care to remember. I am in my 50s so an aging parent is part of that mix. The hard working doctors and nurses in our hospitals are really beyond belief in their capabilities, compassion and efficiency.  My gratitude to them cannot be measured.  Period.  As one nurse recently said to me, I get paid very well for what I do, but I deserve it.  She is on 12 hour shifts and the lifting alone is back breaking.  She writes charts and cracks jokes (not necessarily at the same time!) just to keep some levity to a sometime, grave situation.  She claims that the public personna of nurses/doctors is that they see so much tragedy, they are immune and numb to their patients.  I have never seen this to be true. 

The more I travel and see the rest of the world, the more I love and admire my country, my province and my city.  It's not perfect, but we're doing a heck of a lot better than everyone else.

Thank you, my country.

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com