Challenging opportunities for practice

A friend was telling me this weekend about his excellent but challenging opportunity to apply his meditation practice. Last week a new woman started working in his office, and was temporarily seated in the same area he works in. He described her as a person whose general mode is "STRESS!" and who talks loudly and constantly, complaining about everything. He was initially freaked out, being nearly unable to concentrate at all. Then he decided to apply his practice - he recited his mantra that he uses for concentration during his meditations, and just quietly repeated it to himself over and over, and was able to generate a state of calm mindfulness. Moreover, he decided, this was a chance to do metta practice, and he generated as much "liking" as he could and just let that radiate out to her, figuring here was a moment in her life where even if she didn't notice it, her freaking out was being met with quiet patience, not hostility. Her behavior didn't change, but he found it much less distracting or aggravating.

It was kind of funny, and I admired his tenacity in doing this every day for a week, apparently with success (as he was then able to continue normally with his work, despite her continuing to have a non-stop freak-out all day every day).