“Why stop there?
I let it go first…”
For a brief moment,
my nerves tightened.
I had just pulled out
of my parking space
when another car
came toward me.
We both backed up,
almost at the same time.
I pulled back
into my parking space.
The car went by.
Then I continued
the way I usually did.
A moment later,
the car came to a stop,
blocking my way.
Its turn signal was on.
I waited
for a few seconds,
thinking it would move.
It didn’t.
My frustration
rose right away.
I backed up again,
pulled into
the parking space,
and drove out
the other way.
As I drove away,
my mind
started looking
for an explanation.
I let it go first.
Why stop there?
There was plenty of room
to pull over.
That makes no sense.
Did the driver
not see me?
Maybe the driver
was looking at a phone.
Maybe there was
something urgent.
Nothing had happened.
I had simply
backed up twice,
pulled into
and out of
the same parking space,
then driven away.
Mid-point
I wasn’t looking
for the truth.
I was looking
for an explanation.
Looking for an Explanation
Within seconds,
my mind had turned
the whole moment
into a complete story.
Only later
did I realize something.
I didn’t know
what the driver was doing.
Maybe the driver
was unloading something.
Maybe the driver
hadn’t even noticed me.
Maybe the driver
had a reason
I couldn’t see.
I simply didn’t know.
But my story
felt more real
than that uncertainty.
Only later,
I realized
how quickly it had happened.
Nothing dramatic
had actually taken place.
A car stopped.
That was all.
Everything else
had happened inside me.
A feeling appears.
Then my mind
tries to explain it.
And before I realize it,
a story is already unfolding.
These days,
I don’t always believe
the first story my mind tells me.
Sometimes,
I simply watch it begin.
And that alone
is often enough
for it to quietly fade away.
