I'm not sure why my inspirations have been coming to me in cars over these last few weeks but there you have it.
While driving with my family to lunch in Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway we noticed the heavy traffic on the other side of the road.
Comments where made how on the way back we'll take a different route to avoid the standstill.
After a delicious meal at a farm-to-table restaurant at the tip of the Malibu pier we went for a stunning 45 minute hike full of sun, sand, and a cool ocean breeze.
Back in the car about three hours later we were heading back.
I pulled up Waze and Google Maps to checkout the traffic situation. PCH was flowing and completely clear.
I informed the driver and was surprised that even with this new data she choose to alter our route incase there was traffic.
I knew the new way would take us substantially longer--and it did--but I decided not to insist.
What it made me think of is the idea of the pigeonhole. How we often use past experience and old data to confine people in the present.
Even if someone who has acted one way in the past is trying to show up in a different way we don't receive it.
We stay so stuck dwelling on old outdated information and miss an opportunity to reignite a more nourishing connection.
In various relationships--family, friends, dating--I find myself thinking, "You always" do this or that when in reality its not true. The way they acted one or two times became inflated in a successful attempt to pigeonhole.
Where in your life and relationships have you confined someone because they acted in a certain way a few times? Where are you so caught up in the story bolstering your case with old data that you are actually closing the door on something magical?
The pigeonhole.