Monday, April 12, 2010

asphalt hours I do not lament



This morning I saw a photo
a snapshot through the windshield
everything was gray
you could smell that road breath
diesel exhaust and asphalt effluvia

red tail lights ahead the only color
the days the world was so framed
stopped suddenly as freeway traffic for me
not so long ago

I am grateful to have a snapshot
to tell me again why I left
windshield time
that life of road sitting
on the way to
somewhere else you'd rather not be

2 comments:

  1. From my website (http://www.bicyclemeditations.org):

    One day, I was riding to work, and I was on a street bridging over a busy interstate. As I looked to my right, I could see the sun rising over the Olympic Mountains, which were white with new snow. I glanced the other way, and I could see the colors of the sunrise reflected in the new snow on the Cascades to my left. It was easy to make a blessing. Only many months later, did I think about the eight lanes of gray concrete and cars in shadow below me.

    It's easy to make blessings when we are surrounded by that which is think is good or beautiful. But all that is, past and present, is what was needed to bring us to this, our perfect present moment. It all can be blessed.

    If you are quite comfortable with making blessings at what you might judge to be "good", then the next step is to make blessings without any judgment. I know a cyclist who quit smoking, and reported being thrilled to be able to smell the clover and honeysuckle again, as he rode along the countryside. You know, when I asked him about it, he said he was thrilled to smell the other countryside smells too, like cow manure and fermenting silage.

    All of it can be blessed -- the shit and the honeysuckle. It takes a lot of miles in the saddle, consciously breathing in and out; before we can let go of all the judgments we have about every aspect of our existence, and be able to say "amen" to it all.

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  2. aloha Claire
    lovely blog entry - it is indeed a blessing to accept everything, embrace it all. a key to happiness.
    when I think lately of leaving behind my family, it can feel lonely, so it was a welcome change in my thinking to suddenly get a sense of what else had been left behind.
    interesting juxtaposition of the road images.

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