the opportune moment.

I was stuck at a busy T-intersection. The sun bore down like a Greek orthodox grandmother. Stiff and heavy breathed. The seconds passed by slower then grains of sand through a clogged hourglass. My mind could not fathom the thought process of the person in the vehicle before me. 2 minutes of earnest waiting seemed like 2 weeks. Why she could not put petal to the metal and quarter the circle I know not. Every muscle in my body was tense. My fingers were sore from tapping, my upper lip cramped and my patience thinned. Every millimeter of my voice box ached from holding frustrated words within. So many breaks in traffic. It was like watching your baby sister play 'Frogga' on the 'Nintendo' your best-friends uncle gave you when he upgraded. You can see the gap so clearly. It is as though time slows and you are focused on the gap. You time it perfectly and you cross the road in your mind. But alas she cannot see the gap and yet again you wait another 2 minutes of seamless eternity.

Why do we get frustrated sitting at T intersections behind slow minded drivers, or deep down build rage when we miss the green and hit tomato red at the traffic light? Is it the diminishing time in our day? The adage of time is money and money makes the world go round. So to lose that time means you lose the money and your miscalculation at the lights makes the world stop spinning? Is it that we have become such a need and want 'right now' society that if we have to wait, it is not worth it? Is it that we rule our own lives so well we treat ourselves like royalty and expect the same treatment from others?

I believe not. I believe we try and circumvent our frustration by blaming it on time, blaming it on need or ego. If you were to remove time from the equation and destroy the inner wants of instant gratification, maybe take a step aside from what you need for one moment and look again at the T intersection scenario. The only thing left standing is opportunity.

As I sat behind the women at the T intersection, all that sat before her and I was opportunity. Gap after gap in traffic went past but she refused to seize the moment. I was not upset because she was wasting my time. I waste enough of my own time to blame it on her. The sole reason of my frustration was that deep down sense that inner whirlwind that need to see others successfully grasp an opportunity by the head and run with it. It is built within us all. The need for more. To grow. To change. To advance. so to witness opportunity after opportunity fall breathlessly to the ground hurts even the onlookers to a situation.

Humanity is built on individuals. Individuals within communities. Communities who work together for a common good. So to see another individual in absence of opportunity hurts the greater community.

When those before us miss their opportunities we miss ours. It took me a very frustrated 2 minutes in a hot car to view differently the concept of 'before you get your own vision, you must serve another mans vision'. I understand the concept very well having served other men’s visions for many years, but 2 minutes today shone a new light upon the old proverb.

I could not receive my opportunity to turn the corner until she accepted her opportunity. Here’s not to say we cannot make change and accomplish anything with our lives until those before us do, no, we must encourage those before us to take their opportunity. For each individual within the community is working for the common good. When one man flourishes we too flourish. So in helping her see the gap in the traffic. Giving my all to see her succeed I then was able to step up to the plate, having watched the traffic from another perspective, take my swing at the opportunity given and hit it out of the ball park as I had already guaranteed it in my soul having watched it pass second by second. The opportunity waited. It was now or never.

- Reuben Leigh Skewes