Lately I turn off the radio for the morning drive. I sit and practice strong back, soft belly. There is nothing to do here but drive as well as I can. This bridge from morning sit, and then morning solitude has become a way to get into the world with practice. The other cars are there, with their own driver’s agenda. Hurried, plodding, taking their pace from others – they all engage with the other cars and my driving is a way to be me and care for them. If I am attentive to just driving as well as I can, doing my task, paying attention to the world, I am caring for them and accepting them where they are. In the strange absence of face to face contact, this is a liberating practice. There is nothing else to do. All of them, these cars operated by people I’ll never know, they are my path, like the wind on a walk they push me along or hold me back.

But my job, in my car, is just to be with them and do my work as well as possible, no matter what their issues are.

Driving is a tremendous place of practice.