Last night as I drove in darkness along a city street,  two bright lights attached to a large vehicle turned directly into MY lane. 

Holy hot fudge.  My foot slammed onto the break.

Unwavering, the lights barreled forward, without slowing in momentum. 

At my right, pedestrians walked.  On my left, cars whizzed by.   A head-on collision flashed before my eyes. 

What was this driver thinking?  Was he drunk?  Drugged?  Confused? 

I leaned on the horn. 

At the very last second possible, he turned into a driveway to his left leading to a church. 

I gasped.  Weakness spread me; my arms felt as though I could barely hold the steering wheel. 

He saved himself a few minutes of waiting in traffic by driving on the wrong way of the street at night, in order to sneak into the church parking lot.   If I hadn’t been paying close enough attention and braked I wouldn’t be writing this blog right now. 

Writing Prompts:

1.  As writers and readers and people of the universe, we need to pay attention to everything.  Write about a time in your life where someone wasn’t paying close attention to their surroundings. 

2.  Write about a time where you weren’t paying close attention to what was happening to you or others around you. 

3.  Take 15 minutes of your day to practice “slow-down-the-moment.”  Pay attention to every sense you experience.  Walk outside into nature.  What scent do you smell?  How can you describe it with words on paper?  What do you see?  Hear? How does your skin feel in the weather at that moment?  Touch tree bark, a plant, an animal or an object.  How does the texture feel? 

4.  Practice gratitude.  At the end of each day, think of three things you are grateful for in that very day.  Had a lousy time of it today?  Then think small.  Did your breakfast cereal have a good crunch?  Your teacher or friend give you a smile?  Or think big.  You had breakfast, unlike many homeless people.  Write about the act of gratitude in a poem.

5.  Ever have a heart-thumping life-threatening moment?  Write about it or them in detail.  Show how it made you feel.  And make this moment a learning experience.  How can it help you in your every day life?