Everybody’s a saint until someone cuts them off in traffic.

Patience under good conditions is not patience, it is the absence of provocation. The real measurement happens in the two seconds after something small and unfair lands on you, because there is no time to choose a personality. Whatever comes out is already installed. That is not a reason for shame, it is just useful information.

Catch yourself in one of those windows this week: the queue, the traffic, the sibling. Notice the first thing that rises before you act on it. Putting one breath between the feeling and the reaction is most of the work.