This was my view from the back seat of an Uber car recently and to me, that view was just fine.
We were stuck on Interstate 635 in Dallas, a highway I lovingly refer to as “the death trap”, at traffic time. We couldn’t move. We needed to get all the way over to the right to exit, but we were stuck in the HOV lane on the left. You’d think it would have been stressful and frustrating.
But not that day.
That day I was with two girlfriends and we were headed to meet more girlfriends! Our kids were well taken care of, and this traffic? It was giving us time to catch up. We brought each other up to speed on everything we’d missed. We listened, we ranted, we laughed. . . and then we laughed some more.
We were already running very late when the driver let us know he was about to miss the exit, and I kid you not… we were like, “No worries!” Until he informed us that it would probably make us about 20 minutes later. He offered to get over in the middle of this gridlock. We said, “You can do that?” He said, “I can, but you might hear some horns honking and see a few unfriendly gestures.” We told him that’d be fine. So he did it.
We crossed over the barriers and four lanes of gridlocked traffic, making our exit just in time.
There were three things at play here that made it easier.
- We weren’t driving.
- There weren’t severe consequences for being late.
- We were together.
That third one trumps them all.
That drive that took us an hour and a half, felt like it passed in twenty minutes. I guarantee you if I was making that same drive by myself to the very same gathering, I would have been a ball of stress when I arrived. My hands would have been sweating. My shoulders would’ve been tight. It would have tainted the whole evening.
Instead, that night got logged as part of a super fun adventure with friends.
Obviously all of life isn’t that easily remedied by laughter with friends, but sharing the load changes things. And the impact of those changes is significant.
Think about what you’re carrying today.
Think about what you’re dealing with in your mind. Think about what you’re facing in your schedule. It’s tough. I know it is.
Now think about sharing it with a friend.
You can breathe easier. You’re load just got lighter. I think I just saw you smile.
Authentic friendship brings life.
It’s worth fighting for.
to more love,
Crystal
