Exit

Weeks ago, I listened to a group discussion that gave me pause for thought. One speaker made an inflammatory comment, deliberate or without thought, sure to draw the ire of listeners. Before things escalated, the moderator stepped in to defuse the situation and gave the speaker a chance to reconsider or clarify their remarks. The speaker ignored the gift of this opportunity and in fact, made it worse by making a joke. It was not the outrage I felt about the comments that made me sit back and think. It was the gracious gift of the “here is the way out” moment.

How often in life do we head down the wrong path and even when we realize we have miscalculated we keep going because ego steps in and dictates, “I’m not wrong, the map must have a misprint.” Or how we persist in our decisions even after admitting a mistake, simply to avoid appearing foolish. How prideful must we be to see an off ramp in the near distance and rather than take that step to find a way out we ignore it and continue because we can’t admit to ourselves or anyone else that we were wrong. How much further down the highway will we drive when we realize we missed our exit? Will we take the next one, turn around and find a different route to take us to our destination? Can we, if we misspeak or behave in a thoughtless manner toward someone else, hear when we are offered the opportunity to stop and think before speaking again or is “being right” more important? And can we apologize when we have gone too far?

So many of the lessons we learn in life come from the mistakes we make if we have the wisdom to step out of our own way and truly listen. If we’re in water deeper than we can keep treading, close to going under, and someone throws out a life preserver or a hand and says “take this” are we humble enough to grab it and say “thank you”?

What possibilities exist if we take the off ramp, or the hand that is prepared to lead us out of difficulty?