Nana Remembers a Lesson Learned

I posted last week about trivial irritations. Once I started focusing on the things that irritated me it was difficult to stop. All day after I posted I found myself getting irritated and thinking “Oh, I should have put that on the list.”

Readers posted comments of the things that irritated them. Uncle Skip suggested the car on the freeway with the turn signal flashing…for miles…and miles…and miles… Mrs. Midnite reminded me of bus riders who don’t give seats up for other riders who obviously need them. Yeah, that definitely should go on the list. Jules warned me to avoid Kentucky where spitting is a birthright and I got irritated all over again.   I said to myself “Oh, they’re right that irritates me too.”


I was wallowing in irritation.

Then I remembered the quote over on my other blog:

"What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life." – Oprah

Oprah’s a smart woman. If goodness expands if you focus on goodness, the opposite is probably also true. The more I focused on irritations, the more irritations entered my life.

Life is too short to allow the irritations to get to me.  June reminded me that it’s self defeating to count my irritants.   June and Oprah, you are both very wise women and I thank the universe for sending you to remind me.

It’s not like I didn’t know…but, like most lessons in life, sometimes I need to be reminded of what I already know. Once again the universe is sending me messages and reminding me to pay attention.

Lesson learned, or maybe that should be lesson remembered.   I made a list of my blessings and posted them over on my other blog. Click here to read it.

Trivial Irritations

Uncle Skip over at Rants and Musings has the following quote posted on his blog:

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves."


~ C.G. Jung

Which got me to thinking about all of the really trivial things that irritate me.  Here's a short list in no particular order:

1. Getting mayonnaise or pickles on my hamburger when I specifically ordered "plain, with nothing on it."
2. Drivers going 30 in a 45 zone...or actually anyone going too slow when faster is allowed.
3. Speeding in a school zone.
4. People with 15 items in the 10 item or less speed checkout.  Yes, I'll even let you count those three cans of soup as one soup item but a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, and a sack of potatoes doesn't count as one vegetable!
5. Waiting until you get to the front of a long line before thinking about what you might want to order.
6. Waiting until the checker has finished scanning and bagging your order before you start to search in your over-stuffed purse for a checkbook and a pen.  Yes, I know the total doesn't come up until the end, but you could fill in the date and store name and sign the @#$% check!
7. Clipping your nails in a public place...gross!
8. Using racial, ethnic, or homophobic slurs.  I guess this one doesn't really qualify as trivial.
9. The Tea Party movement...those people scare me!
10. Small print.  Why have a business card if you're printing your email and phone number in script so small that I need my glasses to read it?  Yes, your logo is lovely, but I'd rather you use the space to make the type LARGER!
11. People who spit on the ground.  I don't care if it's the sidewalk, a parking lot or a dirt field.  Other people will walk there, some with bare feet and it's gross.
12. People who "exercise" their dogs on school playgrounds.  Some of them even fail to pick  up after their pooches.  Our elementary schools have beautiful grass playgrounds.  Small children roll in the grass.  I hate to think of their little faces buried in the ground where a dog just whizzed.
13. The self-righteous attitude of the religious right.  It's okay with me that you practice any odd rituals that you please, but please stop condemning to hell those who do it differently.
14. Gossip...okay, maybe I have a love/hate relationship with this one!
15. Slow Internet...Salt Lake City Airport has signs all over extolling their free Internet access, but the connection is so slow and inconsistent that I gave up trying to update my blog. 

Oh dear, once I started this list I was on a roll.  I could have gone on and on.  So what does it say about me?  For the most part these are trivial irritations and I refuse to waste my time fretting about them.

I hate to admit that I see a pattern.  I'm impatient and want every process to work efficiently, from supermarket checkout to ordering fast food, and to my Internet connection.  I want people to be considerate of others, not just themselves, and respect our differences.

I also know that I probably have a blind spot in assessing myself...self-awareness is probably not one of my strengths!

Thanks Uncle Skip for providing me the inspiration for this post.  He really has the best quotes over on his blog.

What really irritates you about others? 


 But wait, there's more...how about loud music interrupting the peace and quiet of a beautiful day at the park, or people who go on, and on, and on...