Stopping for a red light

Tim Woodcock writes: I’ve been working my way through Thich Nhat Hanh’s wonderful little book How to Connect. It’s what I’ve come to think of as a “strong black coffee book” – something that needs to be taken slowly because it's a little too powerful to appreciate quickly. 

Having just taken a road trip to Michigan and back, doing far more driving than ordinarily do in daily life, I was greatly struck by his reflection “Stopping for a red light,” perhaps in part because it echoes some of what Vickie wrote in her June 8 blog post, “Tickets, Speed Limits and Prayer Life.” On this drive, I was also struck by the reality that you’ve got to embrace the place you are in right now – whether it’s grinding urban traffic around Chicago during a rainstorm or the rolling countryside of Illinois and Indiana as the sun comes out.

To give this reflection a little more context, the previous entry in How to Connect mentions the use of bells in both the Buddhist and Christian traditions. He writes, “When I was a young monk in Vietnam, each village temple had a big bell, like those churches in Europe. Whenever the bell was invited to sound, all the villagers would stop what they were doing and pause for a few moments to breathe in and out in mindfulness.”

 

STOPPING FOR A RED LIGHT

When we see a red light or stop sign we can smile and say thank you because it helping you reconnect with ourselves and the present moment. The red light is a bell of mindfulness. We have thought it was preventing us from reaching our destination more quickly. But now we know the red light is our friend helping us from reaching our destination more quickly. But now we know the red light is our friend helping us to resist rushing and calling us to return to the present moment, where can meet with life and peace. The next time you are caught in traffic, don’t fight. If you sit back and smile to yourself, you will enjoy the present moment and make everyone in the car relaxed and happy.