I came across a phrase a few years ago that I try to remember and remind myself of - "Assume positive intent."

It's hard, but has been a helpful shift when I can go there.

I mention this because I saw an incident a couple of weeks that has stuck with me.

I was waiting at a cross walk (on foot) and an older gentleman was on a crosswalk approaching my side of the road.  As he walked, a car honked at him and he immediately got angry.  He pointed angrily at the walk sign, which was indeed still in "ok to walk" mode and yelled something about "it's STILL MY TURN" and he was mad and upset.  This, of course, drew my attention and I looked over to see what the issue was.  The car honked again, and rolled down the window... "Dan, it's Marge and Steve!" an older lady called out the window.  But angry dude was still angry and upset and kept walking away.  As an outside observer I could see that the people in the car had recognized a friend and had wanted to say hello, but the man walking assumed they were annoyed and responded in kind.

It really stuck with me that so often what's going on in your head (bad day, upset about something, negative outlook, assuming someone's intent, feeling guilty, etc.) pushes you to react in a way that isn't actually warranted.

I know that had I been honked at while walking I absolutely would have assumed I'd done something wrong, but I likely would have kept walking, maybe looked at the car and I like to think I wouldn't have reacted with anger, but honestly right now I'm stuck with so much anger in general I don't really know.

I hope that the car people called or contacted their friend later and they all laughed at the misunderstanding.  I hope that whatever was/is upsetting the walking guy is resolved.  I hope he feels less angry, cuz I certainly know I don't like feeling this way.  

I just thought it was interesting to see someone reacting one way immediately to a situation, especially since what he assumed wasn't correct... it made me really want to think about how I react to a lot of things.