I happen to get stuck in traffic rather a lot, since I'm busy with various voluntary activities day and night, five days a week across Reading, particularly at those peak times of day, e.g. after RE:Inspired, when I've been at the Chaplaincy and on my way when I'm in a hurry... Usually, when this happens, I have the potential to get cranky and to get annoyed at the other drivers.
Today, I realised that that would not be a good thing as I have a bad case of the cold (being asthmatic), and since while my car was parked this morning (and I was safely in my house), another driver smacked into the side of my car, and I wasn't sure how much more damage the other driver had caused, other than the obvious superficial stuff...
So I decided to use the time to drive slower than the speed limit, allow lots of space between me and the car in front, let other drivers pull out into my braking distance and slow down approaching traffic lights where there were people waiting (in case the light turned to red). I also used the time to focus on the spiritual lessons I've learnt this week, cloud gaze (it was a stunningly beautiful day), sing along to my praise CDs and dedicate the next day to God, whilst asking for healing from my cold.
I was continually struck by how beautiful the clouds were - especially with my sunglasses on, as they accented the cloud edge regions, the stark difference in colour between the tightly-contained cumulus (clouds) and the bright blue background. The sun was also amazingly bright, though the radiance didn't burn my eyes as my sunglasses are fairly decent.
I was tempted to go for a longer drive on the way home, and extend my time of meditation, but decided I couldn't justify the additional burning of fossil fuels, so instead, took my fascination to wander a while with images on the internet.
I'm glad I didn't race home, and instead turned what could have been a painful half hour of sitting in stationary and slow-moving traffic into a beautiful time of reflection, meditation and thankfulness to him for the awesome beauty of a spring day.
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