9 p.m. Thursday evening.
2.5 hours of sleep the night before – the body (and mind) have quit. I’m done. It’s done.
An eggshell blue Extra Strength Tylenol PM caplet rolls in the palm of my hand. Please. Work your magic. Free me of this Mind. These thoughts. These chains. This swirl. This madness. Just let go.Of me. Please.
And it does. I find Goldbarth’s layer on layer, down and down. And down I went.
5:40 a.m. this morning.
I blink to clear the plume of narcotic, misting Tylenol PM. Both hands grip the wheel – Steady DK, Steady. There’s a giant Semi to my right, Transpro Intermodal Trucking Inc., Bensalem PA, and a five-foot high barrier on my left…thousands of pounds of concrete which I can reach out and touch. Lane feels tight. Walls on both sides close in. Steady DK. Steady. I reduce speed to 55, glance in the rear view mirror, wait for oncoming traffic to clear, and swing the car across two lanes. The convoy of trucks and early morning commuters stream by – all racing to beat The Rush to Manhattan. Not today Friends. Not today. I’m out.
6:05 a.m.
It’s me and a floor of empty offices and desks. The air conditioning is humming. The overhead florescent tubes buzz. I log into my PC, wait for the gremlins to load. While I’m waiting, I flick through WordPress posts. It’s Ray on the rural roads in South Carolina. My eyes scan his post, my pulse slows, the body softens and I’m swept away in “Take the Backroads“:
“There is something refreshing about making your way through cornfields, strawberry fields, horse farms and peach orchards at 50mph or so. It is much more relaxing than driving on the Interstate at 75mph and being passed by 18 wheelers…I made my way the thirty-two miles from the meeting back home, I drove, windows down, through a large cornfield as the sun was setting. The air was fresh and sweet and since there was little traffic, I was able to drive well below the posted speed limit, breath deep and take it all in. When I was younger, I never would have done that. I probably should have.”
Yes Ray.
Yes.
Notes:
- Inspired by : “One of the deepest and strangest of all human moods is the mood which will suddenly strike us perhaps in a garden at night, or deep in sloping meadows, the feeling that every flower and leaf has just uttered something stupendously direct and important… There is a certain poetic value, and that a genuine one, in this sense of having missed the full meaning of things. There is beauty, not only in wisdom, but in this dazed and dramatic ignorance.” – G.K. Chesterton, Robert Browning (Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels)
- Photo: via Mennyfox55
Live & Learn 
Just heard of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide an hour or so ago. First Kate Spade and now this. Two in one week. MUST take time to savor life, every day, in any way we can….
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Shocking news on Bourdain. Stopped me in my tracks…
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Me, too. Still remember reading ‘Kitchen Confidential.’ One never knows….
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….what suffering is going on upstairs….
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Exactly….
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Ray has the right attitude.
I don’t think we are meant to realise that we should do so when we are younger…
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We aren’t Dale. A time for everything…
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It’s time to slow down and enjoy the cornfields, DK. Time to slow down.
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It is Helen. It is. Have a good weekend.
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🙂
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Listen to Ray … and your blogging peeps Dave. Slow down and cherish what you have before it’s gone 💕
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Yes. Yes!
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Those backroads are the best. I remember driving home on a Friday, from a busy day at work listening to the radio. The traffic report listed a number of backups and delays throughout the area. The announcer said I think the only place there are no problems this evening is near a field between x and y. I laughed out loud as that was exactly where I was, stress-free.
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Now that would be something I wouldn’t forget either. Thanks for sharing Darlene!
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Here’s my version of the I-5. https://emandyves.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/its-the-i-5/
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Love this version!
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Driving between semis and concrete can give one such a crushing feeling. Best to be out of there!
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Agree with that!
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in life it takes us a while to get up to full speed, cruise along, and finally understand the joy in slowing down, getting lost, wandering, and at last arriving whenever we get there –
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It does Beth, it does.
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I, too, find myself slowing down to appreciate the incredible vistas on routine trips to town, an hour and a half away. I force myself to do this, even. One can take even Paradise for granted. And I’m determined not to. Aloha, David. 🌺🌋🤗
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And what amazing vistas you have Bela. Aloha right back at you….
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‘No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.’ Charles Dickens 🌈
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Deep Friend. Deep!
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😀 Have great weekend and sleep well 💚💕
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You too!
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I share some of those roads with Ray and yes, his description was just spot on sublime!
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You too are blessed to share rural roads in God’s Country Lisa. 🙂
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