Walking into Target, my one year old in the cart, I scan the entry way. Everyone looks suspicious. They cannot all be bad. Can they? I push ahead. Eyes darting around from one person to the next. My grocery list is tucked safely in my back pocket. My hand makes no attempt to reach for it. The chaos around me requires my full attention to navigate. Who just touched my shoulder? Quickly my head turns to the side to catch a glimpse of the culprit. She carries on like nothing happened. My eyes immediately find my child. He is safe.

Rounding aisle three of the store, I am too far from the exit. Too far from my escape route. There up ahead. Two men enter aisle three. Why are they looking at us? What could they possibly want? I must protect my child.

Quickly, my body turns the cart in the opposite direction. Picking up speed, my cart rounds the corner to aisle two. My mind calculating the quickest way out of the store.

SMASH! The sound of two carts colliding stops me in my tracks.

The judgement on the woman’s face. She thinks I am a terrible mom, but if she only knew that the men in the aisle over are trying to steal my child, then she would understand.

Quickly moving the cart around the woman that I just ran into, my mind continues to plot the fastest way to the parking lot. To the safety of our car. Abandoning the cart near the front of the store, we make our exit. Relief washes over me. No one has followed. My car is in sight. The groceries will have to wait.

Looking back on this moment, I cannot help but think about the woman in aisle two. I can imagine that she had her own stressors that day. Simply wanting to grab a few items from the local Target and get home to her family. Imagine her surprise when a woman and child come crashing into her cart while she’s looking at the salad dressings in aisle two. She could have gone home that day and described the scene. “A crazed woman with a baby in the cart, who looked like she hadn’t showered in days, ran right into my cart today! And then just took off.”

She had no way of knowing that I was struggling with the symptoms of PTSD and vicarious trauma. No way of knowing that I had convinced myself that the men in aisle three were trying to steal my child.

There is always going to be a reason to point out the wrong doings of others. There will always be reasons to hate, hold a grudge. I would like to encourage you today to remember that each person has a story and you might be encountering that person in the lowest part of their story.  I would not want to be judged based on my lowest, most hopeless days.

For the lady in aisle two, she was forced to react to a situation that she did not ask for. She could have yelled, sought revenge, or allowed this moment to ruin the rest of her day.

However, I would like to think that she could have saw the pain in my eyes and choose a different response. What if, instead of condemning me for my actions, she chose to quickly forgive and recognize that there is more to the story then just a reckless irresponsible mother?

The actions of others, whether positive or negative, always have a reason behind them. No one acts without reason. Without something driving that choice. For me, “the crash in aisle two,” was caused by the motivation to protect my child. I had no way of convincing myself that the threats were not real. These actions forced another person to make a choice. A choice that she did not ask for.

I would encourage everyone to seek kindness and understanding and use that as your reason to act. Show kindness to the most undeserving. You might use that power to change the course of someone’s life.

Author: Crystal