If you don’t see God in all, you don’t see God at all.

Yogi Bhajan

When someone doesn’t relate to us the way we want to be related to, it doesn’t mean they are bad, behind, inherently annoying or wrong.

If you had to be their advocate for that moment, what would you say their true desire would be at that moment? What spiritual hunger do they have (to be valued, loved, heard, to matter, etc)? What are they trying to communicate through all that maya? See past the yelling, dismissing, devaluing, superficiality, etc.

I know that when I’m frustrated, upset, hungry to matter, or overexcited, it’s more challenging to talk from rather than to talk at. Perhaps we can give someone else the courtesy of seeing their struggle and pain. That’s not to say that it’s okay for someone to cross boundaries. Bad behavior is not okay. But will we engage back in it? Will we lay down in it? Or will we speak to the God in them and tell God they’ve crossed our boundaries? How would you tell God?

Or, during our exercise in advocating, perhaps we were able to see the struggle and the pain instead of going into our own instant reactivity, and we now see it differently. Our response would be different.

The gift is, we’ve transcended ourselves, and we have the God in that person to thank for it, and we ultimately experience the God in us.