Traffic

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Over the past couple of days I have been intrigued by the manner in which traffic is finding its way to where everybody is going...
What is usually a fairly orderly event ~ even during rush hour ~ suddenly turned into something much less structured. Or so it seems.

Driving around my hometown I see drivers disregarding traffic lights, haphazardly changing lanes, speeding, and most of all everybody seems to be very frustrated that they are not the only person driving that road on that very instance.

It is not just drivers of cars that act like they are a little ‘out of it’...

This afternoon in the supermarket people with shopping carts or shopping baskets kept bumping in to one another ~ or, maybe as a polarity, started a long conversation with a friend right in the middle of a narrow isle; ensure no-one could pass them.
I though it was an interesting, even somewhat amusing occurrence. After all, many of us pay to see a somewhat overstated, slightly chaotic situation like that in a theatre! Yet in the supermarket it just sparked frustration.

When something similar happens in traffic, the stakes are higher ~ and so is the frustration level!

A couple of days ago I was driving home when a lady on a bicycle drove onto the intersection right in front of me. She had the right of way, so I had just about stopped the car in order to let her traverse the crossing. To my surprise she almost drove her bicycle into my car! The reason? She was texting while riding her bike.

Texting and traffic don’t mix.
Not even when riding a bike.

It makes me wonder what it is that makes it so hard for us to stay calm, cool, and collected... Is it the ever higher frequency of energy that we are living in at this point in time? Or are we really that much more in a hurry these days? Could it be a collective sense of nervousness? Like we may experience when something is about to happen, and while we feel this is true and sense the anticipation ~ we may not even know what it is that could happen. Or where, or when...

In other words, are we just reacting to something outside of ourselves, something we perhaps don’t even know what it is, yet have a sense that it is ‘out there’? Or is this something from inside ourselves? Even something that we are projecting onto the world outside of ourselves ~ especially while partaking in traffic?

Either way, it seems to me that it would be a good idea to stand still for a moment and to take a deep breath. To let go of this frustration or unease. To connect with life itself!
Especially when we need to enter into traffic in order to get to where we want to be...
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