Everyone seems  stressed these days.   Have you noticed this?  Either they are in a hurry or they are angry or they are just plain annoyed.  And it's little things that set them off. 

I admit, I too find myself annoyed at little things.  I catch myself all the time and try to change my attitude because I really don't want to be angry, annoyed or rude.  It's really not a pleasant state to be in.  I'm really making a concerted effort these days to be pleasant even in most unpleasant circumstances. 

Where is the grace?  Why don't we give more grace to one another?  What harm is it to be "other minded" instead of "self minded?"  I think it's something we all can improve on and it's really for the better. 

Since moving here I'm loving the fact that I can run every single day in the middle of the winter.  That's because it's really NOT winter here.  Well, not to me it isn't.   I am just thrilled that I can put on my shorts and tank tops and run out the door.  Gone are the depressing dark cold days of a long Northeastern winter.  Gone are the long spandex pants and Gore Tex running outfits.   Hello sunshine and warmth.

Well, not exactly.  Seems as tho even in Sunny Florida, there are some dark moments to steal one's joy.

Down here, all over, are nice wide pathways to run on, what we'd call bike paths back home, with sidewalks on one side of the street.  It's like this everywhere.  These wide paths are called recreation paths and are used generally for biking and golf carts while the cement sidewalks are basically for those who are walking usually with their families or their dogs. 

But cement is not conducive to running.  It's very, very bad on the joints.  I try not to run on cement as much as possible.  It's the worst possible running surface so, like home, we run alongside the road staying off the cement.  Back home we didn't have sidewalks only bike paths, if that.   So we really enjoy these nice wide recreation trails.  It's perfect.  Besides if we ran on the sidewalks we'd run into those walkers and that would be a problem as well. 

Well, it seems as tho some of those who are driving the carts think they own these paths.  Most are nice (Grace givers) as they drive by waving and smiling at me.  But there are a few (Grace killers) who either try to run me off the road or usually just yell, "get on the sidewalk" as they whiz by me. 

Now, as an experienced runner, I'm very respectful of oncoming traffic.  It's in my best interest to be.  I always run facing traffic and when I see a car or, now because of the wide paths, a golf cart I scooch way over to the cement curbing hugging the sidewalk without jumping up onto it.   There's plenty of room without my even having to do this, but they don't know this so I do it anyway.  And when I see three or more carts in a row coming I will jump up on the sidewalk for their benefit.  They seem to appreciate that and wave as they go by.

But for the most part, I stay on the path and keep running having to put up with the "get on the sidewalk" people from time to time.  It really makes for a bad day.  It gets me in a foul mood.  Funny how that happens. 

But now I think I'm onto something.   It seemed to me these "annoyed" golf carters didn't appreciate my scooching over to the side very well and I started to realize why.  For one thing they didn't know what I was doing because I'd look  way ahead and start moving over when I saw them coming from a distance away.  So when they got closer they didn't see my accommodating them noticing only my presence on their God-given cart path. How dare I?  So I decided to play a bit of psychology on them figuring if it worked on my kids......

So now I run right in the middle of the path until they are close enough to see me make a noticeable effort to shift to the left.  I still jump up on the sidewalk  from time to time as needed, usually if there's a few carts coming or if there is a vehicle on the road behind the cart.  

And it's working.  Since I've started doing this, I haven't had anyone holler at me anymore.  It's all about perception and assumption. They see me submit to their carts and while maybe still not happy about it, I have gone about two weeks with no one yelling at me to "get on the sidewalk." 

So what are you......a Grace Giver or a Grace Killer?