Last Friday, I grabbed the dog and set off for South Carolina to visit my grandmother for a long weekend. The visit was lovely, as was the drive — any opportunity to shut off my brain for a while, experience a moment or two of peace, listen to awesome (and crap) music that was clearly meant to be sung at the top of my lungs, and think a few things through. In spite of being physically tired from the road trip I am mentally recharged.
The journey south was more than 10 hours, thanks to a highway shutdown on I-95 South due to an accident. It was my first road trip with the dog so I stopped a few times, much to the annoyance of the pooch. Turns out my travel companion loves to sleep in the car and finds stopping with a request to go “wee wee” to be rather annoying. Lesson learned on the way home, when one bathroom break was enough.
With 17 hours in a car round trip, I put my time to good use, applying some meditative thinking to reflect on various personal challenges I’ve been dealing with (e.g., the desire to punch a certain person repeatedly in the face). Hopefully these exercises worked — at least short term, I felt (feel) a definite release of feelings of stress, anxiety and associated desires to cause bodily harm. Funny how a little time to my thoughts can result in feeling calmer, more centered and ready to take on the never-ending challenges of my life.
So back to reality, feeling a bit more focused. Things are far from perfect, but they are feeling more manageable.