Click for audio: Stuck in Traffic
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
One of Jesus’ most effective teaching techniques was his ability to take the simplest things and use them to convey a profound spiritual principle. He used seeds, birds, fishing, wind, water and a host of other commonplace objects to make his points.
One day while driving, it occurred to me that we can use this common activity as an indicator of how we are moving through life. Have you noticed that when you are in a hurry, everyone gets in your way, you hit all the red lights and the speed limit seems ridiculously low? You don’t want to be where you are. You want to get where you are going. You have one eye on the clock and the other on traffic that seems to conspire to make you late. If there’s a wreck up ahead, the chances are good that you will think less about the well-being of those involved and more about how their bad driving is going to slow you down. In other words, the focus of your driving experience begins and ends with you.
Here is a simple experiment you can try. Get in your car and comprar levitra en linea take a little trip. Your goal isn’t going to be a place. Your goal is to become an observer. When you see other cars, think of them as being driven by people who have destinations important to them. If they need to cut in front of you to get where they need to go, you gladly let them. You let your whole attitude become centered on courtesies you can perform to help others get on their way. You will quickly discover a very different driving experience.
Now think about how you are driving through your life. Do you feel like you’re stuck in traffic? If so, could it be that you’ve become so focused only on what you want that everyone else seems to get in your way? Try relaxing your own ambitions long enough to pay attention to the fact that others are doing their best to get where they feel they need to go. Perhaps there are things you can say or do to help encourage them along their way. You may not actually need to say or do anything. Just relaxing the way you approach your own life might be enough to help you see an important quality of experience that before seemed elusive.
Today’s talk was particularly meaningful to me. As a city bus driver, I would agree that driving is a perceptual experience. When you spend time among bus drivers, you become aware that their volume of road experience tends to create a certain mindset. They will tell you of being harrassed by other drivers, pestered by faulty, unreliable equipment, forced to fight tight schedules, stuck behind slow traffic, and pestered by the dangerous behaviour of other motorists. All the while they perform their duties safely as they are contending with impatient demanding passengers.
Just this week, I was pulling away from a stop with a load of Central high school students. Without warning, I had to quickly apply my brakes. Weekly avoiding hitting a car that hurriedly slipped in front of me to make a quick right turn. Having avoided the impending accident, my mind became furious with not only that one driver’s behaviour, but all such behavior of “self centered” teen drivers. I went on to blame the self centered behaviour of all drivers and pedestrians who place me at risk as the guardian of passenger lives and company property.
I was furiously whipping my favorite scape goats feeling victimized and justified in my attempt to provide a needed public service. Then briefly I caught notice of the fact that my signal lights were telling others that I was remaining stationary, not attempting to move back into traffic. I realized that the condition I was blaming on others was in fact self created. Had I let others know what I was about to do, they would have had information to respond differently. Put another way, had I let them know of my needs, they might have graciously afforded me the space I needed to enter the flow.
Just this moment of self realization allowed me the opportunity to cool down, laugh at myself, and open the blinders of my mind creating better safety for all. Personal perception is my biggest challenge when it comes to living cooperatively and safely. It is also the most likely culprit when I am feeling put upon or victimized.
Thank you for today’s message.