I wrote this poem during a morning commute to work. The
journey would take 1 hour at the best of times but with the traffic you could
add at least half an hour of stop start frustration. Once in these situations
you really only have two choices: to be stressed, angry and frustrated at your
situation or to find a way to pass the time in an enjoyable way. Some days I
get dragged into the muck of bemoaning the situation, however most days I choose
the latter, usually listening to an audio book I am interested in.
On this day, I put on my favourite music, turned it right
up, opened the windows and sunroof and smiled my way to work. It felt so much
better!
At one point, I passed a bus full of commuters and couldn’t help but
notice that most of the passengers were wearing earphones and sullen
expressions. I wondered what was going through their heads? What was going on
in their lives? Do they endure this apparently awful experience every week day?
Did they really choose to be there? Not one person on that bus appeared happy
or even slightly content!
I would have loved to see just one of those commuters crack
a smile. Even better, like in the You Tube clips, what if one person decided to
start a contagious round of laughter? How would that change everybody’s day?
The truth is we always have a choice. In every moment of
every day we can choose how we feel and how we react to the situations we find
ourselves in. We can choose to become zombie clones, just going through the
motions day in and day out. Or, we can choose to find a way to truly live life,
to enjoy the journey, even if you are stuck on a bus in peak hour traffic!
What do you choose?
Photo ©
Renee Chamberlin 2013.
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