Of Life and Lanes

I reach the Yield sign and brake to check for oncoming traffic. He comes fast and furious and my slowing is not quick enough for him. The car zooms past with a blaring horn. I follow him onto the ramp and watch his obscene gesture to me as he ignores speed limit laws and races ahead.

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I could react in anger. Mirror his hair-trigger rage and join his game. I refrain. Not because of great restraint as much as resignation to the familiarity. I've been here before. Too many times to count.

 Riding along in the driver's seat when something cuts me off and changes my course. Someone misunderstands. Cutting words and intentional snubs as they race ahead, never stopping to see if any damage has been done. Prey hunted by my own self-condemning thoughts and a captive behind the prison bars of my own unrealistic expectations.

Life happens to us much like traffic flow. There is debris in the road to swerve around at a moment's notice. Other drivers crowd us to the roadside and go on their merry way. Sometimes accidents occur. Sometimes we are the ones at fault.

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I've noticed that in life, as in driving, the biggest dangers are often the smallest things. The internal things. Simultaneously driving and sending a text or passing a sippy cup  to a backseat passenger or swatting at the spider that materializes on the steering wheel. The everyday things that can change a destiny and snuff out a life.

I don't want distractions to snuff out the life I have been given. To steal hours from my children or love from my husband. I want to look forward and lean into life. Not at breakneck speed or a constant eye on the rear view mirror.

 I want to use the interstate when necessary, but make most of my days a meandering journey on back country roads. Where the breeze blows through the windows as we sing along to our favorite song on the radio. Where the joy of taking a drive with those I love doesn't get lost in the urgency of arriving at my destination.

Ah! The destination. Arrive we will, but when we turn in the keys will we have made the most of the lanes we've been given? Or will we have left cars in our wake, damaged and broken? Passengers in pain from our reckless pace?

I reach the Yield sign and brake to check for oncoming traffic. He comes fast and furious and my slowing is not quick enough for him. The car zooms past with a blaring horn. I follow him as he ignores speed limit laws and races ahead.

I wave and smile as he hurries. Who wants to arrive first anyway?