road

by

Braking Is Overrated

There are times when it’s necessary to put on the brakes, but more often it’s better to be aware and adjust your speed. You don’t always have to brake. 

I drive behind so many people who put on their brakes going down a hill, with no one in front of them, and not going faster than the speed limit. They just like to put on their brakes.

Maybe they like to test their brakes to see if they’ll work in an emergency. 

To be honest, we don’t need to brake as much as we need to be aware of our surroundings.

When I mountain bike, I try to use my brakes as little as possible. Every time you touch the brakes, you lose some momentum. 

It’s not exactly the same in a car, but still we should look first before we brake. Many people brake before they look … or just hit the brakes because they haven’t in the last thirty seconds.

What really bugs me is the bumper sticker I’ve seen lately while driving around my city. I saw two cars in front of me the other day, both with that same sticker. It read “I brake for turtles”.

There may be many things you should or could do when you see a turtle on the road, but braking is not one of them.

Turtles don’t move very fast. It’s easy to gauge where they will be when your wheels go by them. You can move slightly in the lane to make sure they come between you tires.  

Please don’t brake. You’re more likely to cause an accident if you do, and then you might skid or be pushed by another car right into the turtle, squashing him in the middle of the road. 

I like turtles. We owned a turtle for about seven years. 

I remember when we got Winston, the water filter was so powerful it would literally push him around the tank, despite his desperate paddling like mad to get some control. … He was only the size of a toonie at that time.

We gave him to a family several years ago and sadly lost track of his address. With no cell phone or email for him, we had no way of tracking the poor little guy.

I still think of Winston and wonder what he might be doing today – maybe sunning himself on his rock or, heaven forbid, in some kind of turtle soup. 

I do like turtles, and I don’t want to see them get hurt, but let’s not brake for them. 

… For that matter, I can’t remember the last time I saw a turtle on the road, yet our city spent eleven million dollars to put up fencing so that turtles couldn’t get on the road! 

Instead of braking, look. If you see a turtle, you can avoid hitting it without evasive maneuvering or screeching to a halt. 

A good rule for driving – whether there is a pack of turtles on the road or you just haven’t touched your brakes in the last ten seconds – is to simply let your foot off the gas and look.  Just look around; just be aware. You might even save a turtle’s life.

Here’s the thing: Many times we react quickly to what is happening in our lives. We react immediately, much like touching the brakes on a car. But rather than reacting, it is better to pause, get a sense of what God might be doing or teaching you, and then respond with the correct action. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to refrain from reacting to right now? Leave your comments below.

by

I’ve Been On The Road Too Much!

I think I just need to stay put for a little while. I feel like I’ve been on the road too much.

Driver's hands on steering wheel

Over the last month I’ve done a fair bit of traveling – not to any exotic or far away places … I’ve just been doing a lot of driving.

The good thing is I like driving, but I think it’s time to take a break and stay closer to home for a while.

Our cottage is almost 500 kilometres away from us (that’s 310 miles), and in the last month I’ve made that trip two and a half times – about 2,500 kilometres.

This last trip sort of finished me off. I had meetings just east of Toronto and then was going to take in a one-day seminar up north where our cottage is.

I spent a night at our daughter’s home, then two nights in a hotel, another night at our daughter’s and then one night at our cottage.

There was one more stop along the way, however. Our son is moving and we offered to help him do some apartment hunting in Burlington, which is southwest of Toronto.

That little adventure went very well and we found something for him by lunch time. We were pretty happy about our find and relieved that one more detail of his move was settled.

But I was already pretty tired and we had another 2 1/2 hours of driving to get to the cottage.

We were driving on different roads than we normally take and it seemed we were winding our way through the countryside and at the mercy of slow moving vehicles and road construction.

I’m not sure whether it was all the driving we were doing or the amount of time I was spending in the car, but I began to think that we needed a new car.

… a car that floated on air; one that was quiet on the inside, with no sound of the road or the wind; a car that had seats that formed to your body, and one you could put on auto-pilot and sit back and close your eyes in.

I guess I’m describing a limousine service. And I sure could have used it! By the time we got to our cottage I was done in.

I needed to just lie down and take a nap. But even that seemed to be short-lived. I was interrupted by dinner and then a walk along the beach.

Even waking up the next morning came an hour or so too early for my liking, but we had the seminar to attend and then pack up and head back home.

I felt a little like a rock star on tour. They say sometimes they don’t remember what town they’re in; it’s all a blur.

For me, I just want to stay inside the city limits for a week or so. Then I’ll probably be ready to make another trip.

Here’s the thing: One of the reasons traveling takes a toll on you is you get out of your routines and are away from everything familiar. You sleep in different places, eat out more, and don’t have the comfort and familiarity of home. One thing you can do to help steady yourself is to keep your time with God. Remember that no matter where you go, He is our constant; He never changes. Our home is with Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How does traveling unsettle you? Leave your comments below.

by

Frustrated On The Road Again

Traveling the other day, I found myself a little frustrated. The conditions were good; the sun was shining, and the road was dry.

FrustratedDriver

The traffic, though heavy, was moving at a good pace.

I had some music on and really, what more could you ask for? … Not much, except I would have liked the guy in front of me to get out of the way!

I found him a little annoying. Well, to be honest, a little more than annoying.

For one thing, he didn’t drive at a steady pace. He would keep up with the traffic ahead of him for a few minutes, but then slow down by almost 10 km/hr. I found I was on the gas, off the gas the whole trip.

I would have passed him but it was only a two lane highway and there was steady traffic coming the other way.

I figured he wasn’t much of a skater – he had to have weak ankles not to be able to keep his foot on the gas at an even pressure for very long.

I found myself analyzing what he was probably like. I came up with his personality traits and the kinds of things he was thinking about.

If I had have had a police sketcher in the seat next to me I think I probably would have been able to come up with a fairly good picture of what he looked like.

My picture might not have looked anything like the guy in real life, but it was dark out and so we will never know for sure.

Let’s just say my description fit him to a T.

The other thing that bugged me about his driving was he used his brakes all the time. We were driving on a highway; there were no lights, just straight road!

There was no need to touch the brakes, but it was like he needed to hit them frequently just to make sure the pedal was still there or that someone hadn’t tampered with his brake line.

Like in most things, momentum is key. I’ve learned in mountain biking to try to use your brakes as little as possible, because any forward momentum you’ve built up will be lost as soon as you put on the brakes. Coasting is a better way to control your speed than stepping on and off the brakes.

However, on a bike when you loose momentum, you have to expend a lot of energy pedalling to get it back. In a car you just have to put your foot back on the gas pedal … unless you have weak ankles and can only sustain the pressure on the gas for a short amount of time, like the guy who was driving in front of me.

In the end we parted ways. He turned off the road, and someone else had to drive behind him and get all frustrated.

As for me, I’ll forget about him, but there’s plenty others out there who will take his place in front of me.

Here’s the thing: Life can frustrate you at times. You may even be a little frustrated with God, feeling like He is not clearing the way for you. Patience is required, and maybe that’s what you need God’s help for more than anything else.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has you frustrated lately? What will you do about it? Leave your comments below.