There is a busy pedestrian crossing in my neighbourhood. It’s directly opposite the Woolies supermarket, so it gets a lot of foot traffic.

As I was driving home last Friday, I stopped for an elderly woman and her grandchild to cross the street. The grandma got to the middle of the crossing, turned to my car and poked her tongue out. I know !!! I was just as shocked as you dear reader. What did I do to deserve this angry distain from someone I didn’t even know?

The incident puzzled me for the rest of the weekend. And then it dawned on me. I was singing in the car. I was belting out Seasons of Love from Rent. I was up to singing the chorus and the ‘love’ just as grandma was entering the crossing and she must have thought I was poking my tongue out at her for having to stop. Hilarious!

This got me thinking that sometimes we jump to conclusions without having the facts. Perhaps we should stop and pause before reacting.

I may never ever get to tell Grandma that I was practising for this week’s Sydney Flash Mob Choir and that I wasn’t bothered about stopping to allow her and junior to cross the street.

To avoid a similar incident in the future, I’m going to stop and pause my falsetto until I make it safely to the other side of the crossing. Next time she may come back with her cane !

Main photo by Alex Harvey on Unsplash