Speedbumps are people too.

I like to call these people Speedbumps. And in spite of my greatest efforts - I cannot seem to steer clear of these people for prolonged periods of time.

You have to have met them - Speedbumps are everywhere.

Sometimes they show up at meetings and prolong Agenda items with irrelevant questions or hidden agendas of their own.

Sometimes they have an exaggerated opinion of their competence and create havoc and devastation that even Mother Nature herself could not replicate with the very worst of her storms.

Sometimes they choose the power of their words to crush, disable, hurt, misinform, divert, undermine, confuse or sabotage .

Just about always - they are highly allergic to intelligence and creativity ... the very proximity of which seems to send them into a bumbling frenzy that would be laughable if it did not mean having to spend more of your own valuable time with these people who, if not for circumstance - you'd avoid at all cost.

The Speedbumps of life annoy me. Willful stupidity infuriates me. Disrespect disgusts me. And yet, there must be a reason why this path I walk is sometimes littered with Speedbumps. How is one ever to truly accelerate in this life when these mounds of cement keep popping up - sometimes so unexpectedly that, if you're not careful, they'll send you careening into a spin that can take days to correct?

I've given this some thought - because I have had the great good fortune in this life to somehow have drawn to myself the most incredible people; smart, resourceful, courageous, funny, creative, supportive, collaborative people. They are like turbo jets on my spirit's flight path. I don't dwell in drama for sport, I seek to do what needs to be done, I learn what is necessary to move forward and I carve out the time needed to ensure my part of anything I'm involved in is met. And then BAM - sigh ... yeah, another Speedbump.

It seems to me that I have two options available to me at this point. A crossroad, yet again. I can take the path that invites me to walk as a raving, ranting lunatic -- forever angry and frustrated at the stupidity surrounding me, crying about the lost time, the lost effort, the small minds, the mean spirits, etc. etc. etc. I can take these little speed bumps and give them the emotional power to serve as brick walls. And I can forever be caught in the cycle of Groundhog Day all over again with every speed bump I hit.

Or, I can take the path of understanding - exactly what do these speed bumps represent at this time?

Have I been moving too fast through this present task, this present week, this present project? Am I starting to get too caught up in the role of being efficient, productive, focussed, superior? Is there something I'm missing, someone I'm not considering, an alternative I'm blind to, an outcome I'm not thinking through? Would anything cause me to pause with these important reflections if I weren't suddenly halted by ..... a Speedbump?

For me, the Speedbumps are necessary. I don't have to like them (I generally don't), I don't have to appreciate their methods or tactics (I generally don't) ... but it serves me well to respect their timing and appreciate their symbolic signal that it's time to slow down. For whatever reason - it's time to slow down.

I'm still very annoyed at the Speedbump who hoped to halt important progress last Thursday with underhanded and uninformed behaviour ... but good has resulted from my willingness to veer off the path that may well have ended in 'somebody getting a hurting" - and to instead take a path that found me strengthening a collaborative relationship with two other intelligent, creative, 'don't let the idiots get you down' women ~ and the project is once again on track.

Clearly I still have a lot of spiritual work to do. I have been unkind in my reference to Speedbumps everywhere. For this brief moment in time, Pollyanna has left the building.