Thursday, April 27, 2006

The bus ride

This morning I needed to take my car to the garage and leave it for the day. Instead of going into town with hub and having him drive me back home, I took the 40 minute bus trip back. After dropping off the car, I went to the gym for a long workout and good stretch, did a bit of shopping, had lunch, then caught the bus home. I hadn't been on the bus for several years. I began to read my book but found it too difficult with the bumpy roads, etc... Decided to just look at the scenery, homes and new lambs in the fields. The idea of taking the bus seemed like a chore to me and was surprised to find myself quite enjoying it. I really looked at what we were passing and sitting up higher meant I saw things I hadn't noticed before, at least not in a very long time.

I noticed the sparkles on the water when the sun peeked out, some homes I don't remember seeing before, and of course the new lambs. Looking across the water with many sailboats out and thinking what a lovely scene it was nearly took my breath away. As we went down my road which is nearly a 5 mile drive to our home after the turn off, I thought about how when I'm driving it I think about how much further I've got to go, how I wish I was home already, how I'm famished or desperately need a cup of tea. I often notice how pretty the scenery is, especially on a sunny day, but this was different. I looked at a row of houses and was able to see over the tops down to their gardens on the water and the house being rebuilt with the stone I like and I felt a rush of joy thinking 'this looks new to me...it's brand new' even though I saw it all every single day.

Carpe diem!!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Bravo to you! It brings tears to my eyes to read you transforming, because I can relate to your changes as well. I'm Jennifer from "A Quiet Mind" website, and I followed your link here from one of your posts on Robert's forum. This post of yours about noticing things as if for the first time, was just beautiful. I am reading a Pema Chodron book where she talks about seeing things with child's eyes and you just experienced it. Something about this path causes these moments to happen more frequently. I have even had them inside my home. I'll walk into a room and see it as if for the first time and think how lovely everything is and how lucky I am. In my old mindset, when I "looked" at one of my rooms, all I saw were all the things that still needed to be done or mistakes I had made painting, etc. It is such a miracle to "take back" the present moment from our overthinking, egoic minds, isn't it?

Annie said...

Hello Jennifer. Aye, it's wonderful to experience things like a child! You'd enjoy the link on my blog called Silent Bliss, where I describe those moments where the world is absolutely perfect for a few moments.

This moment is all we have.

Peace