The Traffic Can Wait

I sit in a car. A lot.

It is not my favorite thing to do. At all.

On good days I can lay hold of the fact that all this driving around is actually due to great blessing in my life –

*an active, healthy,  involved-in-everything teenager.

*lots of classes in neighboring towns guiding women along their fiber journeys.

*errands to procure necessary provisions for a family.

But most of the time, in-between the grumbling, huffing and occasional involuntary expletive, I’m hunkered down, eyes-to-road, thinking where-to-next?

Unless I stop.

I have drawn before (as in the above drawing), these little aberrations of sight and wonder when I happen to turn my head left, out the driver’s side window and look. I don’t do it on purpose usually. It is often with a sigh and a desire to get off this flippin’ traffic-filled road and get on with the real stuff of life, that I turn my head.

I’m not expecting this. At all. But somehow in the fog of my negative thoughts, as I’m stopped in that never-ending automotive line, I can see…

A lovely meandering line of tracks, leading from underneath the bridge I’m on, up into rolling hills where light is carving out distinct shapes on a winter-hued landscape. How I would love to hop out of the car and go. To get on that train and follow those tracks to other towns, states, see the world a bit.

I’m enchanted by the view beside me, right where I am, even as my reverie is broken both by the formidable cement railing barring my jump onto the train, but also by the honking behind me as the traffic has grown impatient with my imagined train trip.

I get back into gear and lurch froward, smiling at the gift of being forced to stop in the midst of what I loathe, and being offered a view, a spot of beauty along my daily highway.

I need to stop and look more often as I drive.

The traffic will just have to wait.

P.S. I do not sit there in traffic drawing. Although perhaps I should! 🙂  I snap a picture with my phone to draw from later, thus a second gift of insight for the day.

9 thoughts on “The Traffic Can Wait

  1. Davida Macdonald says:

    Oh I love working from the car and have several spots where I can park and enjoy the views as well as uninterrupted drawing. Sometimes the efforts are developed into larger pieces, sometimes not. Whatever the outcome the experience is almost always therapeutic.

    • Jennifer Edwards says:

      I do enjoy being able to park the car off the road and out of traffic to draw. Especially helpful when its too windy or cold. But I don’t think I will draw while in traffic. I suppose I could be really speedy at a long traffic light. Thanks for visiting my blog!

  2. Pamela says:

    I knit at stop lights. Always have my creativity right beside me in the car for every little glimpse of opportunity. Makes the car so much nicer My friend and I post our creative snippets via a photo of places we find unusual knitting opportunities

  3. Brenda Urbanik says:

    It’s true, there is so much to draw around us. I spend some time sitting waiting in the school car park, and I remember one day drawing what I saw from my rearview mirror. Love your work, always.

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