#what choices can we make abt how we interact with the other inhabitants of the spaces where we reside?

[squareofshape]

friends drove in from out of town so we gathered in a park. some kids were playing nearby where my friends + i were sitting on a long low wall... suddenly we heard a parent call "oh wait, don't run over anybody!" and we all moved our bags so the kids could scurry through the group.

and what i really liked honestly is that the parent didn't make them stop. like there was a quick apology ("ha, sorry, thanks for understanding") and the parent explained that the kids were avoiding the "sharks" in the "water" so they had to "walk the plank" and we were like "yep that makes sense, totally reasonable" and we all moved on. everyone walked the plank safely and we enjoyed the rest of our ice cream.

but genuinely. shoutout to that parent. because when those kids ran through where we were sitting, they slowed down & shifted to their tiptoes so they wouldn't step on anything or knock into us. and it's so much more important to learn how to do that than it is to erect strict boundaries between the self and the physical world.

like, sometimes you're gonna move through a space that is already in use. what decisions can you make, in that moment, to ensure that everyone gets to continue using that space? what do you notice about how others are behaving? how will that inform the way you perform your next actions?