Day 66

Busy day planned. First a long walk to physical therapy, followed by a lot of walks to distribute Senior News. Sometime I will walk to the store for a few groceries too. Walking has always been part of my life. The fitbit doesn’t make me walk, it simply records the routine steps. The part I am most interested in is the active minutes. I know that pushing the speed increases my endurance and it gives me a more active day. 

Senior News column

We love our cars. They are our freedom to go where we want to go. Mostly we enjoy our trips, find parking spots, take our friends with us, and get things done. There are times when our free moving is interrupted by a stop light. In an effort to make driving more enjoyable, even with red lights, I have started a list of ways to wait for the light to turn green.  Here are a few: think of a haiku about red lights, (remember five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables).  Pay attention to how your fingers are gripping the steering wheel and relax them.  Notice your forehead and relax those muscles. I pray for that the others waiting with me that we will all get where we need to be in a timely fashion and without stress. 

I fill most waiting moments with word games.  For a red light, that

can mean: Think of words for red--scarlet, carnelian, cherry. One could think of red things and take a minute to picture each one--a red corvette, a sunset over the mountain tops, a perfect apple.

A good brain exercise is to make words from the letters in "red light": delight, relight, lithe .I always keep a notepad on the console in case I come up with a really good word or idea for writing.

I make a list of the people I love and rejoice in our connections. I beam smiles at them. If I close my eyes to pray for them, I’m sure someone behind me will tell me when the light changes.

I sing to the red lights, making up silly songs that encourage the light to turn green. I sing loudly and with great drama.  It must be entertaining to the cars around me and possibly reduces their stress.  Maybe my antics prevent road rage in those who in a perpetual hurry. I have noticed that most white knuckle drivers arrive about the same time that I do.  One of my favorite time fillers is to recite the multiplication tables.  I like to see how far I can get before the light changes.  I learned the fifteens this way.  These are ways that I use to transform my impatience at having to wait in traffic into positive energy.  My granddaughter was fond of reciting this chant when we were waiting:

Abracadabra, Alacazeen,

Please Mrs. Red Light,

Won't you turn green?

It is hokey, but I look at the license plates around me and make words out of the letters. I usually can get up to 10 at a long light. Some are obvious and others are a challenge. Since red light waits are an expected part of getting around, I value planning to use the time well.