When I stepped into the shower, I noticed a baby lizard in the corner.
My first reaction was fear and panic. Every instinct told me to get away from it. But I was already in the shower, with nowhere to run and no one to call for help. So I stayed.
As I kept glancing at the little creature, something shifted. The lizard wasn’t moving towards me. It wasn’t trying to plunge on me. In fact, it looked just as terrified as I was.
Amid the splashing water and the unfamiliar surroundings, it had found a tiny dry spot on the glass door and was holding on to it with all its might. Suddenly, the situation looked very different.
What I saw as a threat was perhaps seeing me as one too.
For the next few minutes, we shared the same space. Both alert, both cautious, both wanting the other to leave first. I finished my shower while keeping an eye on it. The moment I stepped out, the lizard rushed away into its hiding place.
It wasn’t waiting to harm me. It was waiting to feel safe. That little moment stayed with me. How often do we do the same in life?
When people seem defensive, distant, rude, stubborn, or difficult, we often assume they are challenging us. But perhaps, like that tiny lizard, they are simply scared.
Fear has many disguises. Sometimes it looks like anger. Sometimes it looks like silence. Sometimes it looks like withdrawal, control, or resistance. And perhaps most of us are simply looking for our own dry spot on the glass. A place of safety, certainty, or control when life feels overwhelming.
The next time someone reacts in a way I don’t understand, I hope I remember that little lizard. Not every threat is a threat. Sometimes it is the other persons insecurities, their own challenges and own fears. Sometimes, two frightened creatures are simply trying to hold on to their own dry spot on the glass.
The lizard wasn’t looking for a fight. It was looking for a dry spot on the glass. And perhaps that is true of most people we meet. Behind the anger, the silence, the defensiveness, or the distance is often someone trying to hold on to the small patch of safety they have found.
That morning, I didn’t learn anything about lizards. I learned that everyone is protecting a dry spot on the glass.