Driving 

 

This week I left work at 5:02 pm.  Turned on the radio and heard a great song with that drumming beat where I found myself turning up the radio so the windows vibrated a bit. The music is welcome after the day of meetings and a quiet office.  

 

A left turn out of the parking lot and then a right onto a main road as I meet up with other cars. I know there is going to be a wait to get onto one of the highways with another left turn eventually. 

 

We are all heading somewhere.  

 

I am heading home.

 

First, there is driving with the music. 

Learning to drive

I have always loved to drive. From the beginning when my friend taught me to drive her car with a standard transmission.  I, of course, said yes!  Let’s go.  

 

My friend had me turn left out of our neighborhood and we were off. Except that I had never been at the top of a hill that greets you as the one driving.  My friend grinned. 

 

The top of the hill was where I learned how to drive.  

Playing the clutch and the gas with a line of cars behind me. My friend told me how to keep the gas going while inching up the hill, and then the clutch was released and we were going down the road. 

 

It was then that I started to breathe again.  When did I start holding my breath?  Who knows! 

 

From that point on, I could drive on any road and up or down any hill.  That friend had grinned going up the hill perhaps because she knew what she was teaching.  

 

Perhaps because she knew the fun and freedom that could come from driving. 

Road trips

There were road trips to southern Utah to visit friends in college, a trip to California with parents, siblings and cousins as we listened to the Beach Boys on repeat for 12 hours, and daily jaunts to school and work. 

 

Later came drives to the park with sack lunches with peanut butter sandwiches, day trips to the north with a stop at Wendy’s and Shopko, and then a gathering of collectables from many stores of the most favorite thing ever. 

 

A drive to see holiday lights, where the buses were parked or a quick 5 minutes diversion. 

 

Music came along for all of those drives as the passenger got to choose the tunes.  

 

Best rule ever!  

 

I drive now for work when I am not in that quiet office. I have driven on many of the back roads to school districts across the state.  It is one of the parts of my job that brings focus as I get to do the best part of my job. 

 

The best part is working with professionals in the districts, family members and students.  Oh yeah!  

 

Driving gets me where I need to be.  It also brings me where I want to be. 

That drive home

 

Let’s go back to driving home from work this week. Remember the music that vibrated the windows?  

Ok. Here is the rest of that drive home.

 

Music is going with a steady drum beat.  The windows are down and the fall temperature is almost perfect as I made the left turn onto the highway. 

 

Being the first one through the light almost never happens and yet on that night it did.  An open road adds to the good moments at the end of a workday.  

A memory

Then a sudden memory is before me.  

 

I take the curve and I feel like a tall passenger is with me again.  This part of the highway, where the road goes under another, is like the car is swooping down and then gaining speed again to merge with other cars as the flow of traffic resumes. 

 

It is like a roller coaster if you use your imagination.  Which we did many times.

 

There is a memory of a Whoa being said and a slight grin coming from the best passenger I got to drive with on this part of the road.  

 

It had been a long while since this memory had floated to me.  

 

Sweet and sudden and welcome. 

 

I kept the music going and drove. A silly grin and leaking eyes were on my face all the way home. 

I wonder if other drivers wondered about that combination? 

 

Driving opens up my mind.  The music and muscle memory adds to being able to pay attention to the details of what life is bringing. 

 

What details of life are coming to you every day? 

 

Those are the wonders that I love to let soak in.  Even when the grins make others… curious?  Wonder? Maybe they will join in and grin about something with you. 

 

Let them. Let’s start a grinning trend, my friends!