Think of Yourself as a Car (Spirituality and Everyday Life Can Mix!)

Think of yourself as a car. 

You have wheels to move, doors you can close to keep you warm and safe. Gears you can change to get you up even the steepest hill. A steering wheel to guide you and breaks to slow you down and stop you. 

You have an on board satnav, or satnag if you don't listen to it, and you can programme a direction into the satnav or you can drive aimlessly, constantly getting lost and disoriented and never finding your desired destination. 

You have a fantastic engine and are a masterpiece of engineering, which if kept happy and relaxed can run for decades and travel all over the world having fun. 

You have a large boot/trunk behind you where you can either store holiday gear or a load of rubbish that ought to be taken to a dump and disposed of. It will slow you down and make even the smallest hills difficult if you don't. 

You can use windscreen wipers when the weather is bad and maintain a clear direction no matter what. Or you can let the windows get dirty and drive blindly hoping not to hit anything, drive off the road or miss your dreams completely. 

You can be a sports car, a four wheeled drive that goes over rocks and up inclines and barely notices, a nippy little city car, or a rusting old heap that its driver doesn't care about. 

You can be all shiny and polished or dull, dusty and rusty You can run like a dream, or you can jerk along firing on only three cylinders, loaded up with cheap fuel unsuitable for your needs. 

You have windows to look out of that can be clear and shiny, or dusty and muddy if you don't keep them clean. Except for a couple of blind spots, they give you all round vision. But you need to remember that you only look backwards when you reverse into a nice space somewhere you want yo
Park for a while. You only look sideways if you want to see life passing you by. Using the windscreen and looking forward is the only way to get to the great places life has to offer. 

So what can cause problems in the running of this car called you?

Listening to back seat drivers, letting your partner in the front seat play with the controls, or letting loads of other people drive your car when they don't care about it the way you do. 

Think of yourself as your absolutely favourite shiny, expensive, desired and admired car in the perfect colour. Add in a few extras such as a 6th gear, four wheeled drive, a small boot/trunk where you can only keep good stuff, off road tyres, sports tyres, all weather tyres, and air conditioning. 

Change up and down gears according to the needs of the car. Know when to brake and when to accelerate, and be in cruise control as often as you can. Change your tyres according to the conditions. Programme your satnav yourself. Have the driving seat coded only to you. Never give anyone you don't trust absolutely the key to your car. Only use the best quality fuel. And put on the aircon as soon as things warm up. 

Point forwards, be observant, choose your first destination, and start moving towards it. 

Deb Hawken
Sleek, sporty, well equipped, much loved, four wheel drive enabled, key well protected. Windows clean, aircon on, music blasting out of the speakers. No interfering passengers. And we're off.