Sitting in the passenger seat on a long drive to the beach presents me with two options: I can either go on my phone and sift through work related emails and scroll through Instagram, watching what everyone else is up to, or I can stare out the window and observe the other cars flying by on their way to different places, while I pay attention to the lyrics of the song on the radio that I’ve heard before but never paid attention to, as I roll the window down and let the breeze blow my hair across my face. I can let whatever’s going on in my life take hold of my attention, trying to figure out how I’m going to check everything off my never ending to-do list, or I can let myself think about the flowers that I walked past on this morning’s walk, when I took a new route around my neighborhood and explored areas I’d never seen. I can let the weight of my fears and anxiety about an uncertain future inhabit every thought on my mind, or I can daydream about what it would be like to hike up the mountains I see, to lose track of time going on an adventure with someone I love, to places we’ve always wanted to journey through.
I have two choices when it comes to my thoughts from the passenger seat. I can think about the bumps in the road, my own life’s detours and traffic getting in the way of the journey I wish to take, or I can let my mind escape those things, taking in the blue sky or rain or whatever weather LA chooses today. I can let myself listen to a song, truly listen to it without any other thoughts bouncing back and forth in my head. I can admire a faraway mountain or flower up close. I can daydream and people watch. I can breathe in and out and not think about anything else. My thoughts from the passenger seat don’t have to fix or mend or complete anything. They can simply be whatever I want them to be.
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