Don’t fret.

Just continue with your task at hand. 

One snowy winter day, while running water into a pitcher at the kitchen sink, I glanced out the living room patio door. A car in the visitor’s parking area across the road had its lights on. But the car itself did not appear to be running, and I couldn’t see anyone inside.

It was cold, about minus 20 degrees. It would only be a matter of time before the battery would go dead. I also didn’t recognize the car. And with three buildings surrounding the area, there were twelve possible apartments the driver might be visiting.

Pondering this and realizing that there really wasn’t anything I could do, I returned my attention to the pitcher. Which was overflowing!

Hastily turning off the water, I, yet again, reminded myself “Compassion, but no wisdom.” It would have been far better if I had realized more quickly that I couldn’t do anything about the car and returned to my task at hand. 

Nonviolence does not mean we do not react. 

It means we do not react with more violence. 

In being nonviolent, we are not indifferent. We proactively engage in finding solutions to underlying problems.And most of the time, they concern everyday situations.

If a flicker of displeasure stirs within us when the phone rings or when someone interrupts us, that flicker is an ember for violence. It is a seed for future conflict, and we just planted it deep within us. It will combine with other such seeds and together they will grow stronger.

If we can manage to reduce this preoccupation with ourselves and what we are doing, this self-absorption, the barriers we erect between self and others will come down. We will realize that the underlying problem, which caused our ire to rise, was our viewing what we were doing as more important than the other person's activity.

Having found our underlying problem—self-absorption—we will be in a much better frame of mind to not have that flicker of displeasure the next time we are interrupted.