Open Mind on the Open Road

After a recent and loooooong business trip fraught with mysteriously lost hotel reservations and flight delays, I’d finally found the Intaboro driver outside the Continental Airlines gate at Newark Airport and settled into the back seat of his car for a peaceful ride back home. The driver asked “Do you travel often?” “Pretty often,” I replied (hoping that would be the end of the chit chat so I could close my eyes and zone out). Nope. “Does travel cause you stress?” he asked. “Yep, it does.” Are we done chatting now? “Do you ever meditate?” “Not really,” I answered. After a brief pause, my driver launched into a dissertation on the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation. At first, I wanted to open my car door, leap out and roll to the side of the New Jersey Turnpike to get some peace but eventually I realized two things: 1. This man would not be deterred and 2. I had an hour ride ahead of me. So, I resigned myself to the fact that as long as he was teaching something, I would learn something. And, once I dropped the ‘tude and listened to what he was saying, I found it fascinating. He took me through the basic Buddhist philosophy and then shared some breathing and “mindful quietness” exercises I could do anywhere – in my hotel, on the plane, in a conference room chair. I began to feel more and more relaxed and by the time I got home, I was beginning to understand the healing powers of meditation.




Moral of the story? Morals actually. Don’t be so quick to dismiss people. They might actually have something pretty cool to teach you. Keep an open mind – I never thought I’d be practicing Buddhist meditation. And finally, be persistent. That dude should have closed down at my short/curt answers to his questions but he didn’t. He persisted and shared something of value and that – breathe in, breathe out.- can be a very good thing indeed.



MaryBeth Clayton