I know I must have talked about mindfulness when I was going through the Artist’s Way class last summer, or even on some of my walks I took before I realized that my neuropathy was just too painful to keep up my walks before I had some sort of medication to control my symptoms.
I still practice Mindfulness. I enjoy it so much, that unless it is pouring rain, my “Transformer Car” – Beta has her top down, no matter the temperature. I can hear what is going on around me while I drive. I do have my radio on, usually with the sound down low so it acts as a nice background music to my observations.
I love hearing birds calling, twittering, chirping and tweeting. I hear hawks calling to their mates, mockingbirds that imitate so many different sounds, song birds, crows and seagulls on my drive to and from work. I get to see birds flying, butterflies flitter by, hear someone’s conversation on their vehicles Bluetooth.
There is a pre-school on my drive to work, and the kids have outside playtime about the time I pass daily. I can hear the energetic squeals of delight as they play on the slides and swings, I hear their high-pitched voices calling to each other to come play or try something new. Their laughter echoes through the intersection so joyously that I cannot help but smile at the unrestrained glee happening in that play yard.
There are Jacaranda trees in bloom throughout my whole drive right now. I love seeing the clouds of purple blooms that make up the fullness of the foliage on their branches, and they leave a shadow of purple that fills the area under the tree, creating an outline of the fullest part of each tree.
As I pass over the Los Angeles River heading to work in Signal Hill, off to my right I can see an area of marsh and a small pond in the flood control where ducks, seagulls, white pelicans and other water fowl congregate to eat, rest, nest, whatever, before the river continues on to the harbor in Long Beach. It is a little oasis amongst the cemented walls of the flood control. A little oasis located in the middle of a city, next to a major freeway. This freeway connects the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to major rail hubs and access to other freeways that lead to industrialized areas in the Los Angeles Basin and the Inland Empire.
As I enter Long Beach city limits, the center median planted with those Jacaranda trees, and as the traffic moves beneath their spreading branches it creates a disturbance in the air, causing some of those little purple blooms to swirl in the air currents, fall off their anchor to a branch and fall to the ground. On occasion, I have had a bloom or two float into Beta or even on me as I drive by. I can smell the sweetness of those blooms as I pass, and will miss them when the bloom is complete.
There are other smells that catch my attention; the sickly sweet smell of decay as a trash truck rumbles by. The pungent odor of a skunk that has either been recently roused from its daytime sleeping hole, or hit during the night and lying dead somewhere, sometime seen and others hidden in the brush or debris on the side of the road. The sharp chemical dark smell of warm tar as a street repair is conducted. The nauseating smell of a diesel engine as a truck thunders by. The super sweet smell of the star jasmine in bloom. Or the mouth watering aroma of the exhaust from a restaurant.
Even as I pass through the most industrialized areas, I can still hear birds calling, their voices pitched so their calls are heard over the rush of cars and the heavy roaring of trucks. Vehicles moving over the roads to their various destinations, home, work, a store, a rail hub, a warehouse, a container yard, or to the port. Everyone with a destination they are determined to arrive as quickly as possible, most of them oblivious to the natural world around them.
This is my mindful driving, that I practice every day. Even if it rains, and Beta has her top up, I listen to the sounds of the rain drops as they hit the windshield. I hear the sound of tires swishing through the wet streets. I also hear the sound of the windshield wipers as they swing across the glass wiping the water to the sides. I feel the warm air blowing from the vents heating the air within my cocoon inside Beta. I feel the pressure of my seatbelt across my lap and chest, holding me safe in my seat.
I feel the slight slip of my front tires as they slide on the wet paint when I start moving from a stop at an intersection. When I get in or out of my car, I smell the rain moistened air. It smells clean and fresh. If the weather front is exceptionally cold, it smells brisk.
I look forward to the slow warming that will come with summer. What I see, smell and hear on my drives will change with the seasons. I relish every little moment of mindfulness during my drives. It reminds me there is more to life than destinations and I am ever so grateful that I have yet another day to cherish my world and those who share it with me.
Life is all about the Journey