Leaving a legacy

Short Stories @shortshortstori · Apr 11, 2010… The look of enchantment on the small girl's face sitting next to me as she watched the film Nanny McPhee would have made Emma Thompson glad.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scaring off the passengers

So, I was riding on one of the new local trains this afternoon. I noticed two unique aspects of these new trains.   First, the funny and often confusing announcements from the train personnel over the intercom system are gone. Now there is a calm slow-speaking male voice that sounds somewhat like a smart robot announcing all the information. (Or, maybe it is just someone who no longer speaks like a normal human being.) Secondly, if you try to open the bathroom door when someone else is in the bathroom, there is a loud voice coming over the intercom for all to hear (!), stating the toilet is occupied and please come back when it is free. You have never seen someone disappear so quickly. It was hilarious to see how people raised their faces from their cell phones to see who dared touch the bathroom door. This might be a good way of scaring off passengers considering using their toilet facilities.
Read more

Commuter morning mindfulness training

Who hasn't been an unwitting listener to a fellow passenger's phone conversation? I am quite a prude when overhearing private phone conversations or seeing someone behave inappropriately (e.g. talking on the phone in a quiet zone department). I really don't feel comfortable, and often I am annoyed. There is a quote from Phyllis Bottome that goes... "There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself meeting them." Since it is impossible to make passengers talking loudly on phones disappear, I devised a mindfulness exercise to use in those situations. Here it goes: Acknowledge how the person is annoying me.  Figure out more clearly what it is I am feeling. Is it anger because this is a quiet zone, embarrassment because the information being conveyed is too personal, or righteousness because I judge the person as being stupid? Tap into my sense of humour and imagine three Goldilocks scenarios (wrong, okay, and good) that wo...
Read more

Slow travel

As some of you know, I love travelling by train in Germany. Most Germans do not feel the same amount of adulation for the Deutsche Bahn as I do; they remember Better Times. Yet, if you don’t look back, but only in the present, the German train travel is one of the most comfortable and safe forms of transport on the market. It is definitely my preferred mode of travel, whether it is with the rapid train from Hamburg to Munich or the milk train going up north to my favourite holiday apartment. The best part about train travel is that it is a form of Slow Travel. It doesn’t matter what speed the train is travelling; if inwardly I slow down, sit back, and just let my attention wander between the passing landscape outdoors and the book on my lap, the world becomes a delightful slow-moving tapestry. By paying attention to my surroundings quietly, curiously, and happily, my mind quiets, and ideas start to surface.  When I was in my teen years and early twenties, there was nothing better I...
Read more