Sunny days have been few and far between this spring, so when we have one we’ve sort of been going crazy. Such was the state of affairs when I met up with Kira in Boston a couple of weekends ago. It was a Full Blue Moon, some crazy bit of astrological torture that rivals Mercury in Retrograde for wreaking havoc on folks cognizant of it and completely unaware. This time I fell in the latter group, as I only realized it after-the-fact. Sometimes that’s helpful, as when you want to be extra careful about not leaving your credit card somewhere besides your wallet. (Ahem, guilty.) And sometimes you realize things would have gone just as awry if there were no moon at all. But I’m getting ahead of myself and the tale of this trajectory, so let me begin with a rather annoying trip on the Mass Pike.
Following a bunch of Massholes driving 60 MPH in the passing lane and not allowing the sane ones among us to get by put an initial damper on the day, and the steady fall of rain for the cajillionth weekend in a row did nothing to abate it. I did learn a little lesson on that day, as I seethed and swore whilst in the throes of a rare bout with road rage, and it was this: the only person getting upset and angry and ruining their day in the situation was me. The other driver was blithely unaware of the pack of fifty vehicles that had collected behind them, each as agitated as the others, and even with high beams or horns blaring, my fit of wrath was not going to have any effect on the person ahead of me. The single thing which I could, with some effort, manage was my own take on the situation.
So I eased off the gas a little.
I took a deep breath.
I turned up the music and started to sing. “Ven comigo, let’s take a trip!” I sound amazing in the car when no one can hear me.)
The anger subsided.
The rage disintegrated.
The wrath fell completely apart.
In a few miles, my countenance had completely changed. Even in the rain that would accompany me for the entire trip into Boston (and a few hours beyond) my spirit would not be dampened. It was reassuring to see that in the midst of such fury, a reserve of peace and calm could be found if I focused enough on not focusing on what irritated me. (A lesson I should bring to my Twitter account.)
An auspicious start to a May weekend in Boston… I’ll describe it more fully in Sunday’s posts.
