Long Drives

I got up at 6 AM this morning to drive to San Francisco for a boot camp that my friend Bill was hosting.  I was in the car by 6:15.  I got to Bill's by 8:15.

On the drive, which I was going to do the night before but thought against it because I wanted to work in Monterey and then be fresh when I came to town, I saw the most beautiful things.  I saw the early morning light shining on the water and the fields.

I saw sprinklers shining on fields in curved lines that reminded me of David Hockey's paintings of swimming pools and the circular ripples that were just as geometric as these water curves.

I saw gorgeous trees.
I drove along single lane roads.
I turned off the radio and just started talking to myself.

I expressed how beautiful it was and how I was glad that I had waited until the morning.
I talked to myself about my boyfriend
and how it wasn't important to have things in common with people
but more important to have their respect.
My parents didn't understand me
but they loved me anyway.
What happens often is that we try to understand someone or
to be understood
and we move somewhere to the left of where we should be
or to the right.
We adjust ourselves instead of being true to ourselves.
And then we change
and not for the better.
Our loves don't have to get us all of the time,
even though that's what we want because it makes us feel loved
and cared for.
I don't have to understand everything he does.
I just need to love him for who he is.
I don't have to force him to believe what I do.
He doesn't have to be a hyper organized, punctual,
anal retentive autocrat.
It's best that he's not.

On the drive I talked about my characters.
I tried to figure things out about them.

Eventually, I got to the city.
And I looked at the old Victorians.
I noticed how the pace of life in SF
is different
because you're forced to wait at stop signs
every block or at stop lights.
It teaches a patience
and it requires a throwing up of the hands in the air
because you can't do anything about it
might as well just accept it.
And that makes the trip more pleasant.
I found a parking spot
near Bill's.
I walked to his super market to get some tea and a
snack because I had arrived early.

And who's the first person I see when I walk inside?

I am grateful for challenges.
I am grateful that I can take a drive and it can still be writing.
I am grateful that I can connect with old friends because and it's still writing.
I am grateful that everything I did today was writing.
I am grateful that I am pleased with this week so far.
I am grateful for two hour drives and talking to myself.