Muscle Memory - Written April 9, 2025 - Posted April 13, 2025

Muscle Memory

Written by - Wanda Rodriguez

Written on - April 9, 2025

Published on - April 13, 2025

Circumstances lead to me borrowing a friend’s extra car for a few days.  I picked up the car tonight after assuring them that I knew how to drive a stick shift.  Before you start to worry, I actually do know how to drive one!  During my high school and early college years I learned on a friend’s VW Bug and another friend’s pick-em-up-truck.  There was also a brief time during college that I drove a car with manual transmission of my very own.  So, I stand by my statement.  I mean, come on, if you know, you know - ya know!  Right?!?! How hard can it be, really?!?!  It’s kinda like riding a bike, I just had to get back on, and ride.  

Three cheers for Muscle Memory!!! (Imagine confetti flying, horns blowing and crowds cheering!! Like the old old Bowl America commercials, where thousands cheer!)  Given the fact that it had been “a minute” (conversion time - a minute = roughly 35 years) since I had driven a stick shift, I thought there might be a learning curve involved in getting reacquainted with the technique.  I imagined having to drive around an empty school parking lot to practice (Ah, to be 15 years and 8 months again and just learning to drive! - Hard pass!).  But nope, it all came back pretty quickly.  Turns out that not much has changed in the way of standard transmissions over the years.  What I did notice was the need to pay more attention when driving than is currently required behind the wheel.  I’m not sure about you but I sometimes find myself on “auto pilot” when I drive, and my mind wanders to my endless to do list or other distractions around me.  I might snag a drink from my water bottle or have a quick snack while driving but these menial tasks are a little more involved with a stick shift as both feet and both hands need to be at the ready for a quick change.  You need to be locked in on those things as the car does not automatically adjust for you. (Duh! It’s not an automatic!)  I already knew this but now that I am operating a manual car again, I am reminded of the little nuances that we take for granted when driving a car with an automatic transmission.  

I don’t mind all of my limbs being engaged in the process, I kinda like it actually.  All of the old games I used to play while driving, come back into action, like popping it into neutral and coasting towards a stop sign, or approaching an intersection with a red light slowly, in hopes of not having to come to a complete stop and instead being able to pop that puppy right into second and go, bypassing 1st gear all together! (First gear is overrated anyway,)  I also like the powerful feeling I have when driving a stick, even in this tiny car (my friend refers to it as a “clown car”).  I feel cool, like Mario Andretti.  For sure though, I look more like a character from the Wacky Races, (A cartoon classic from my childhood.  Look it up! I identify with Penelope Pitstop, FYI.) than I do a professional race car driver.  Especially given the “clown car” tag assigned by the car’s owner.  I keep waiting for the collection of clowns to come barreling out whenever the car stops.  So far, I’m the only clown to jump out, but there's still time.  

Muscle memory is a real thing and, in this case, it appears to have lied dormant for a minute, waiting for the day when I again drove a stick shift automobile.  Other than forgetting about it once or twice, like when I turned into the parking lot of the gym and stalled out because I momentarily went on autopilot and forgot to shift gears, it has been a smooth transition.  Today I took it to the carwash and got all sorts of praise and accolades from the attendant for driving a stick.  He said maybe once a month he sees someone come through with a stick shift and almost never is it a female.  He seemed genuinely impressed, or maybe he was just flirting.  (Could have been both. Haha!)

Anyway, as is often the case, I digress.  I started this post with intentions of talking about use of muscle memory and autopilot, but in the process, I ended up spending a lot more time discussing the car than originally intended.  I meant to segue seamlessly into something I started doing with the ladies in my Women’s Bible Study several months back.  We challenged each other to say The Lord’s Prayer three times a day, at 9:00AM, noon and 3:00PM.  I got literal chills the first time we did it all together.  To this day, I still have my alarm set for the three specific times and pray The Lord’s Prayer each time.  If I am with others, I explain the alarm and invite them to pray with me but more often than not, I pray alone.  Sometimes the alarm goes off at inopportune times in which case I shut it off and pray silently.  I have noticed that, with the passing of time, I tend to hustle through the prayer without even thinking about it.  I rapid fire through it, oftentimes not even stopping whatever else I might be doing.  Rote memorization.  Going through the motions.  A form of muscle memory, if you will.  Is this really praying or am I simply checking a box so that I can say, with confidence, that I pray The Lord’s Prayer at least three times a day (usually more than that because I like to open or end my morning and evening prayer time with it as well)?  Am I really praying if I am giving it no thought or is it more like a robo-call to God, like the warranty notices we all get and joke about.  What am I really investing?  It’s more like I am hitting the snooze button until the next alarm goes off in a few hours.  

God, more or less, called me out on this fact recently, Slow down! Think about what you are saying.  In response, I stopped and did just that.  I said the prayer slowly and deliberately, pausing to consider the full weight and meaning of what was being said.  Line by line.  Word by word.  It was powerful and meaningful.  It was also very short lived.  It wasn’t long before I was back to rushing through and squeezing the prayer in where I could, around whatever else might be going on around me at the time.  

Fast forward to my daughter coming home for a visit last week.  We have been together a great deal since her arrival, so she is often with me when the alarm goes off.  She joins me each time without hesitation.  She gets quiet, pausing to clear her mind and puts all of her attention on God and on the prayer.  She has also called me out (more than once!) on the same thing that God called me out on just a few weeks prior.  Slow down.  Think about what is being said and to whom you are saying it.  Talk about the student becoming the teacher.  I didn’t have a leg to stand on as she was/is 100% right.  

This is my call to you, as much as to myself, to not put your prayer time on autopilot or rely on “muscle memory” to get us there.  Invest well your time, attention, focus, praise and gratitude.  Don’t squeeze God in around other commitments or sacrifice your time with Him, or time in the Word.  God should come first and let all other things fall naturally in line behind Him.  I am saying this to myself as much as anyone else.  Like they say, “I’m preaching to the choir.”  But I needed a reminder and, no doubt, I will need another one in a few days or alarms down the road.  Feel free to call me out and encourage me to put my focus in the right direction when you see me slacking and I will do the same.  Iron sharpens iron.  

Thank you for reading and for joining me in my journey.  -Wanda