Waiting on Hold for the Customer Service Rep

Perhaps like me, you make a lot of phone calls. Insurance companies, banks, doctors offices, the IRS, the plumber and the repairman for the washing machine. I even spent time with the NCAA this winter (they were wonderful.)

This poem came during a week where it felt like two different people showed up for these calls. In one, I was seething with frustration and bit my words. I was that person. In the other, I felt patient and compassionate for the person on the other line, trying to help me.

Both of these people live within me! I feel compassion for the customer service reps who answer phone calls - it's not an easy job. Some days I make their job harder. I yearn not to. But that is my growing edge: feeling compassion for myself on those days when I'm the one with my hat in my hand, offering my apology for the worst of me that had just come out.

Waiting on Hold for the Customer Service Rep

Sometimes you're that person:
the one someone carries home
in their soft body. They open their
front door and say to their wagging
dog, You won't believe what happened
to me today. I had a phone call with
the most awful lady. Other times you're
that person: the one someone carries
home with them and says, You won't
believe what happened to me today.
I had the most wonderful phone call.

How is it that both of these people
live inside you? How is it that some
calls evoke the one who offers patience
and some provoke the one lashing out
in fear? How is it that you can be both
cruel and kind? Here's the challenge:
no matter who shows up in your phone
calls today, all of these people come home
with you. It's easier to feel compassion
for the difficult people in your life
than for the difficult people who live
within you. It will take many more phone
calls for you to understand, to know
and love and forgive them all.

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With a grateful heart, Karly