Canada Day, 100km drive, meditation

I have been popping ideas for blogs into drafts, for use at a time when I can actually attend to writing. Today's title is all the notes I left myself, and I think it'll serve nicely as a title.

Today is Canada Day. Mostly, we celebrated yesterday. I have little enthusiasm for bundling us downtown tonight for a fireworks display and festivities, only to battle to get out of the crowds at the end of the evening. Downtown is situated around a harbour, and is well-surrounded by water, so the only way out of those crowds is through. No thanks. Besides which, the kids are tired from yesterday, and I'm on my own with them, since Sweetie is working on his house renovations. We did manage a little face-painting, some wearing of red-and-white, and much playing with the neighbours this afternoon, and that seems to have been satisfactory.

Around supper-time, we started to have melt-downs and disintegration (not mine, so much, this time). My solution was to load us into the car and head over to Sweetie’s with supper. Sweetie was unenthusiastic, given the power-tools, sawdust, drywall dust and “busyness” at his place.

Given this, I was increasingly less sympathetic to girl-child’s pathos over the wrong shoes, or clothing, or seating arrangement, or whatever it was that caused her to screech and wail on the floor of the back seat of the car for at least 15 minutes. My reaction was to turn up the music to try to drown her out, and get on with the business of finding an adequate feeding situation. I’m sure other drivers wondered mightily about all the noise; I cared very little. Eventually, she climbed into her carseat and got buckled in. She had a bite or two of cookie, and fell asleep, which improved my mood measurably.

Still driving, still seeking appropriate food sources for a still-somewhat-crabby-mum, sleeping pre-schooler and ever-inquisitive boy-child… “Where are we going, Mum?” “I wish I knew…”. Within minutes, he started to drift off, too. Just me, gentle music now, and the open road for company, and getting un-crabbied by the mile.

I ended up driving over our local mountain pass, and detouring into an inland lake area I hadn’t been to in many years. The drive was increasingly soothing. By the time I stopped to look at a map and identify the location of half-remembered addresses of old friends, I was at peace, and enjoying myself. The remainder of the drive, through forest, along lakeshore and returning along the side of the mountains was a pleasure.

I practiced a form of meditation on the journey back. This involves being as wholly “present” and “in-the-moment” during driving as one can get. The brain’s job is to generate ideas, and it does a good job of this. Too many ideas and too much thinking can lead to brain fatigue, though, which can cause crabbiness… By resolving to keep the brain focused only on the activities at hand, and to encourage the brain to attend to all of the sensations present in that activity, it may be possible to feel a deep peace and calm, akin to that arising from meditation and vigorous exercise. I pretty much achieved that today, for a little while, at least.