365 Days, Day 309

May you eat an unfamiliar dessert in a strange land at least once every three years.

May you wake up... and start dancing while you're still half-asleep.

May you spray-paint Rilke poems as graffiti on highway overpasses...

My you learn to identify by name 20 flowers, 15 trees, 10 clouds, and one extra solar planet...

May you dream of taking a trip to the moon in a gondola powered by firecrackers and wild swans

(Rob Brezsny)

The best way to be on time is to simply decide to be on time and to acknowledge that travel and meetings always take more time than originally anticipated (Mitch Thrower)

The part of travelling I love is the brief moment of take-off. I love the speed as the plane accelerates to leap into the air. I love being pushed back onto my seat. This thrilling moment is almost worth the tedium, the queuing, being part of the mass of people herded like animals at the abattoir into lanes where we have to be subjected to the bureaucratic whims of the security systems at each airport…

I left Johannesburg after having a lovely morning with Mom and Dad, then a delightful lunch with my special Doug, who had been into Sandton in the morning, and bought me a Gautrain ticket so I didn’t have to queue at the station. He dropped me off at the station after a very relaxing interlude. It was a very laid-back start to the journey. The rest of the journey was long and tedious, but without any setbacks.

I arrived back in England this morning, tired but glad to be home. The softness of the landscapes I could see from the coach felt welcoming and calming. Tom’s delight at seeing me made my day!

I guess our lives are like this journey I have described; filled with long periods of the Mundane inter-spiced with Enchanting Interludes. The secret is: to find something to enjoy about the Mundane and fully relish the Enchanting Interludes.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Amen.

(Reinhold Niebuhr)