Wet streets

We've had a lot of wet streets lately. We all know it's important for drivers to be cautious and possibly slow down a bit when the road surfaces are shiny with rain or sleet.

Since we are in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is much more normal for people to be busily zipping around -- if they can. But I am absolutely certain that there are more cars on the roads during this season each year.

I don't know where all those extra people come from. Do they lurk in their garages all year and come out in December like some sort of nocternal birds? Do they hibernate through the heat of the summer, waiting until rainy winter days to venture out to clog up the roads and parking lots?

This is also the time of year when I drive to work in the morning in the dark, and I drive home after work in the dark. It can get me down if I let it. It makes the work day feel 12-14 hours long somehow.

So, because of the dark, the heavy traffic, the rain that (often) slows the speed of the cars, I seem to be spending a lot of time in my car in the dark inching along on wet streets. As I roll along a half-car-length at a time, I am entertained by the way wet streets reflect light.

The shiny road surfaces multiply the headlights to my left and the tail lights stretching over the hill in front of me. Neon store lights seem to echo across the wet parking lots. Christmas decorations blink on houses and in yards and are reflected on the wet driveways.

This is the darkest part of the year, and this is the most illuminated time of the year. We turn on lights, and the rain ups the ante.

Sitting in my car, the scene puts me in a reflective -- sorry about that! -- mood. Maybe I'm a little bit hypnotized by the visuals or maybe like an overstimulated toddler, I'm lulled toward dreams. I sit in the endless traffic, waiting, looking, thinking.

Over the years, I've learned to capitalize on these unexpected snatches of time. (Long delays in airports when I'm traveling alone. Interminable waits in doctors' waiting rooms. ) These can turn into great stolen moments for meditation.

This year the wet streets are the context for counting the blessings in my life. Remembering all the good things of 2007, reviewing all the kind faces that have brightened my day with smiles, acknowledging that I have been richly blessed. There have been troubles and sadnesses to be sure, but those melt away in light of the good.

The multiplied lights in the wet streets remind me of the blessings that surround me but go unnoticed until I have these unplanned opportunities to realize what I should be grateful for.