Zen in the
driver’s seat

Several years ago, when I was still curious about things, I took a course in zen meditation and learned how to slow down my heart rate, to center my chi, to draw breaths from the corner of my mouth down the throat and through my diaphragm to the center of my stomach (anatomy wasn't the issue; visualization was), to become attuned to the shifting rhythms of the universe.

The other day a friend exclaimed that she enjoys her time alone in her car, going to and from work. "It's my quiet time, the only time all day when I'm by myself," she said. "I need that."

The zen of driving: Occasionally I have to get in the car and go, go, go -- not fast, but the act of getting there is meditative. The journey is calming; the destination unimportant.

Life is like that. We need to get from here to there with the least amount of rough road, to enjoy the trip and whatever capacity for love we have, to embrace quiet time, to go go go.

--Burl Burlingame

---