Bus Trip Through Life

I awoke with a start from one of many naps, I had taken on my bus trip home from a wild-fun weekend celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my sister-nieces in Jackson, MS – an adventure in itself to say the least – the trip not the naps - and noticed that we were at mile marker #24. I suddenly realized I had no idea if we were 24 miles away from North Carolina or 24 miles away from South Carolina. And more importantly, I understood that it just didn’t make any difference. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do to change where I was. I just was where I was – at this moment in my journey - and it was ok.

I looked at the people sitting around me and wondered where they were on their particular journey in life. Here we were, 55 people within talking distance of each other, 24 miles from somewhere, each on our way to the same destination at this one moment in time. Yet, on the other hand, each of us were in a very different place in our individual lives, each on completely separate journeys to entirely different destinations – each in a place unbeknown to the other – light-years away from each other - with only the bus as our common link.

Wow! What a concept. Fifty-five people who had relinquished control of this moment in time to a bus driver who was really on his own separate journey in life. Most of us had boarded the bus at different stations along the route and would exit the bus at different stations, but for this one moment, frozen in the now, we shared the commonality of being 24 miles from the unknown.

I marveled at the complexity and yet the simplicity of it all. At the simplest point, we were just passengers on a bus somewhere in North or South Carolina. It didn’t matter when or where we had boarded the bus or when or where we would de-board – we were at the same place, at the same time, right now - just for this moment. Nothing very complicated about that. Right? As the bus rocketed along at 70 mph we continued in the now – oh yes, the mile markers changed but we didn’t, we were in the moment where nothing changes – everything is complete – free from the illusion of control.

All the while, however, we were each making decisions in the ‘now’ that would influence our final destination in life – complicating the simple. Through the medium of thought and the action we would take on those thoughts we were changing our destinies, and in the process, affecting the lives of others. What if I chose at that very moment to de-board in Charlotte, NC instead of Raleigh. That would start a chain reaction in the lives of many people. For example, my friend would be waiting at the station in Raleigh to pick me up and take me home. When I don’t show, his plans begin to change. My son, who is waiting at home for me, would call his sisters - certainly not in his plan when I passed mile marker #24. A few minutes before all of them would have been concerned with only their own thought processes, but now they would react to the action of his phone call – each action would spark a reaction – and that reaction would affect others in their immediate circle of family and friends – the result of one thought process of one person at a particular moment in time at mile marker #24.

Oh yeah, we believe that we are individuals, living our own lives, each on our own personal journey – pushing on toward our own specific destination, but in reality we are one common cosmic being – in a continuous movement of flux – forever changing – in a place where nothing remains the same; yet, also, always in the now where nothing ever changes – a place without beginning or end – where everything remains the same - frozen in a moment in time - 24 miles from somewhere – on the road to anywhere on the bus ride of life.

© 2006 Ilene Madrigal