A Little Bit of Humble Pie

In a raging temper much of the day due to various reasons that are best shared with a best friend over a couple of glasses of red wine, and then exorcised with a shot or two of tequila and a good boogie, I had the recurring reminder to be humble and to remember that other people's problems are often bigger, and that even the 'smallest' of people have it together, and both these people have infinitely more patience and staying power than I do.
Bogged down with annoyances which were compounded by the incessant ringing of my cell phone and a 'please call me' sms, I frequently had little temper tantrums, sometimes out loud and sometimes... uhm, no, actually always out loud, I was a menace.
Basically, the please call me was from my maid who comes in once a week and cleans and does washing. Her gran, who had raised her had passed away. She asked for a loan and I felt a twinge of irritation, but said I would make a plan and call her back. Then my phone rang, and rang and rang while I was in a meeting. I knew the number. I had asked a wire and bead guy in Melville to make me a tortoise and he was chasing me up. At that stage all I felt was the demands that people were making on me.
Once I had calmed down, I got my ducks in a row and called my maid back. She was still at my place. I asked her how she was doing. She was so honest. She felt sad, and tired, and sick, but she knew she wasn't sick. I thought: "My goodness. Here I am throwing temper tantrums about little things at work and here is someone doing possibly the worst job in the world, cleaning someone Else's mess for not the greatest amount of money, and doing it through grief." Then the day took over again and when I finally managed to get to Woollies to get some groceries, the bead guy phoned three times. Again, I was annoyed. I knew he wanted to meet in Melville to give me the Tortoise and get his money. That meant I had to go to the bank too. I phoned him back in Woollies, and he was the friendliest person on the phone and so professional and courteous. All he wanted to say was that he had gotten some work and couldn't meet and could I do an EFT?
What grabbed me through this whole thing was my reaction to petty things throughout the day compared to two people who really had bigger problems. The small amounts of the loan and the cost for my beaded tortoise, to me were another set of things to do on my list, but to these two individuals would mean the world, and both of them were calm and polite.
So I drove home in my awesome little car, dumped my Woollies groceries, poured myself a glass of red wine and did the EFT and arranged the loan with my maid and thought how lucky I am that my biggest problem today was getting through my to do list. It is a lesson that I will take into my dealings with all people from now on.