Are you the Cookie Thief?

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Willie LaBonne, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

The Cookie Thief
A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
with several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops,
bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .
grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”
With each cookie she took, he took one too,
when only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
he took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other,
she snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude,
why he didn’t even show any gratitude!
She had never known when she had been so galled,
and sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,
then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,
there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
the others were his, and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
Author: Valerie Cox

So many times in our lives we are absolutely certain that a situation is this way… only to find out later on that we were completely wrong. How many times have you been the Cookie Thief? I know I have been the Cookie Thief many times…
Even when is hard to apologize, is better to first accept that yes, we can be wrong sometimes. Recognizing that nothing in life is certain except death, we should also slow down sometimes before making a big deal out of small situations. Sharing, loving, forgiving, and moving on are four of the best things we can do in our lives right now… Let’s try to be the Cookie Thief less often, judging less and accepting more.
Have you shared your cookies today?

Reference: Chicken Soup for the Soul, © 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen http://www.chickensoup.com Author: Valerie Cox