[blockquote source=”Pema Chödrön”]“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” [/blockquote]

I watched an elderly couple having coffee on the terrace this morning. I had stopped off for coffee at one of my favorite community ‘gathering spots’ – a little cafe, where stories are swapped just as easily as the cappuccinos are foamed.

Like me, they were there to enjoy the morning bustle ~ and perhaps, catch up on the lesser ‘news’ of our community.

But, as she chattered on and on, I watched his head keep gentle nod.

“You never listen to me,” she cowed, lips pursed in disgust. “And, where did you get that shirt? I tossed that old rag out weeks ago.”

I watched as he held back his tongue. Time had long forced this routine, and experience had worn its creases deeply along his face.

Why are we always so quick to criticize? What motivates these moments in which our entire world collapses into a single, and horribly irritating reference point?

Oh, and don’t you try to hide from it, either. We all do it – those instances when patience yields its path to the ‘uglier’ side of our rather fragile human nature.

At home…at work…in traffic…something triggers our emotions. And, with near pinpoint precision – we respond.

It seems, criticism has become the means by which we distance ourselves from the reality of our own imperfection. It helps us to transfer this burden of feeling so very much overwhelmed.

We fear being held in contrast, frightened by that which we can not feel ourselves.

“Well, I can’t see it in me, so how can it possibly exist in you?”

My favorite author, and Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön offers brilliant insight,