Our recent move to our country home took us far away from the city, from work, from my mom’s house, from stores, from everything. That’s what we wanted, of course! To be away from the frenzy of the city. But the drive is something that is taking some getting used to. I shouldn’t complain, but when you go from a 1 mile commute–walking distance–to a 25 mile one, you really have some adjusting to do.

While I’m not too keen on driving in general (I LOVE being a passenger) or paying the astounding extra gas costs, I’m trying to find the positive aspects of this long drive. Since I’ll be making this long drive for the foreseeable future, I might as well learn to love it, right?

Now, when I’m driving, I’m trying to really “see” what’s going past the windows. I’m trying to not take the passing scenery for granted and really notice the cool fog effects, the waking animals, the sunshine. Oh, the sunshine! One of the most pleasurable parts of my drive now is lifting my face toward the sun. Now, I am potentially getting 60 minutes of sunlight on my drive versus the quick flash of light when I was only going 2 miles and sitting inside the office all day.

Thinking and decompressing before walking in the door has been another benefit of a long drive. That 1 mile commute sometimes left me feeling bombarded. All the thoughts that I had rolling around in my mind at the end of a day weren’t processed in that short of time, and I had to shift focus within seconds to children and husband and pet, all converging on me. This new drive is a more gentle transition and leaves me time and space to process all the information of the day and leave what I don’t want behind me. I have been coming up with great ideas while driving now, and think I’m going to have to invest in a recorder soon:)

No haters please, but I’ve also been catching up with friends on the phone since I have 35 minutes of uninterrupted air time. I am a much better friend now because I have that time to chat without feeling guilty that I’m neglecting anyone at home. It’s hard to find that uninterrupted time to call long-distance friends, but my new drive has opened up chat time for me.

I have also been catching up on podcasts. At first, I was really excited because we have an old CD player in the car and I thought “great, now I can catch up on myriads of books on CD from the library.” I was so excited to catch up on all the classics and some self-development–it was really one of the only things I was looking forward to. Well, wouldn’t you know, right before we moved, the car CD player seized up and no longer works. Total bummer!!! Well, to make up for it, I found an FM tuner at Best Buy and I have been downloading podcasts with free Wifi at work to listen to with it, and it doesn’t cost me data on my phone either.

And finally, when I’m not listening to podcasts, I’ve been listening to uplifting or informational radio, like KLove and NPR, which satisfies my constant need for information and positivity. I never thought about it before, but there is not one single “downer” song on Christian radio, making it a great way to feed my mind good things.

What do you like to do on long drives alone? What other options might I have?