Your weekend reset: how to judge less and find grace

Today’s Soul Food is an amazing story that one of my teachers, Davidji, shared with me about assumptions, grace, and bag of cookies 🍪

A woman and a man who didn’t know each other were sitting at a table at the airport gate waiting for a flight. The woman had a bag of cookies on the table. To her surprise, the man reached into the bag, grabbed a cookie, and ate it.

Confused and annoyed, she grabbed a cookie and ate it, staring right at him.

Unfazed, he looked at her, shrugged, and ate another cookie.

She grew furious, grabbed another cookie, and ate it, their silent battle continuing. Back and forth, back and forth.

Finally, there was just one cookie left. The man broke it in two and handed her half, which only fueled her anger more. The audacity of this guy! She grabbed the cookie and stormed away, enraged.

Once she got on the plane, she sat down, opened her purse, and saw her own bag of cookies from the same airport coffee shop. All this time, she had been eating his cookies, not hers 😂

This story hits deep!! Her judgment brought her all of this unnecessary anger, while the man’s kindness remained constant despite her actions and reactions.

We can all probably approach situations with an open mind and heart, letting go of assumptions and judgments. Maybe, just maybe, we don’t fully know what’s going on. Think about this guy. She thought he was the asshole, when really he was just sharing his bag of cookies 🥹

Let’s try to be more like this guy—responding to life’s surprises with grace instead of assuming the worst.

Take a long, slow, deep breath in…

Close your eyes and notice all the sounds you hear right now

Take a minute, acknowledging the every creak and hum of the world around you.

Then find some gratitude for your ears, that have allowed you to hear everything you’ve ever heard.

Exhale.