I have been back at work, after December holidays, for a week and a half. The first week is always a breeze, as many people are still on leave, and most schools still closed. However, I found myself very frustrated, especially getting to work within 40 minutes, when the trip usually takes me an hour and ten.
Due to the lack of traffic, I would not have had a moment to drink my coffee, so would arrive at work, far too early, coffee piping hot and untouched in it's travel mug. I would end up having to drink my precious coffee... at my desk in from of my computer. Horrors.
I would arrive to work, (far too early, I must reiterate) having only listened to half the music I had hoped to hear. Now that is a horror, if ever there was one.
I just felt so.... unfulfilled. Empty.
So yesterday, all the schools were back, most people are back from their holidays and dragging themselves out of bed at ghastly hours to go back to work. Picture it, a groggy Monday morning... roads were treacherously congested, there was an accident, a breakdown, a knocked-down pedestrian (she was ok by the way) and some traffic lights out.
Then there is one portion of road that I usually sit in traffic, for around half an hour, creeping along at 15 km/h. This road runs through the last remaining countryside before hitting the outskirts of Joburg city. I love it.
I wind my window right down, and hang my arm out the window, to feel the cool air.
I make sure I am listening to something truly wonderful on my iPod.
I look at the trees and note how their leaves have changed.
I watch birds and cyclists.
I peer into my review mirror regularly to see what my fellow traveler is doing... usually nothing.
I keep a look-out for my favourite motorcyclist, a man who wears khaki shorts every day, wears a grey BMW Compaq motorcyclist jacket, and rides a BMW. I move over for him and it really makes my day if he waves at me in return.
I sip my coffee. Slowly. Savouring every tongue-scalding sip.
I feel the sun on my skin and breathe in the fresh outside air.
Aaaaah.... Chaos and normality.
Female vocalist P!nk puts it so beautifully in her cheerful new song "Good Old Days". We habitually reminisce the good ol' days, pining after our youth, after the way things once were. Well, P!nk's right: THESE are the good old days. Today may be one of those days we longingly reminisce about in years to come.
Thing is: some things you can't change. The challenge is to adapt. But something truly magical happens when you manage to go beyond adapting, and you find the strength within you... to embrace what you can't change. I love my morning traffic, most of it anyway. I even missed it. And that is why there is something wrong with me.
Or maybe right...?
Happy 2013 Fellow Inhabitants of the Road, it's so very good to have you back! See y'all on the tarmac.
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