The little miss and her imagination gives me new flight.
She plants her legs on the airplane window and states with great excitement “Papa my legs are touching the sky”. Her smile and shriek of joy lights up the plane. Or at least parts close to where we are seated.
I wonder how many of you will lay claim to the big blue sky. If you ever do so, remember there is a young lady who planted her feet up there first 🙂
They come in all shapes and sizes. Boxes.
Some going far. Some just next door. They all sit shoulder to shoulder as the postmen gather and sort them at a train station. Perhaps with little idea of what’s in them.
The boxes themselves sit pretty. They have their own story to tell. A former Indian Prime Minister wrote a poem titles “Envelope” which went something like this
“The letter inside is yours
The address on the cover is his
Between the two of you
I get ripped open”
What’s inside us is far precious. When we keep ripping ourselves apart and let newer versions of us emerge, the address on the boxes keeps changing.
We see many new lands. We go places, as they say.
Rip yourself apart. Let the new you emerge from the boxes!
(at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand)
Heights. There is something about heights that fascinates. And teaches.
From up in the sky, the mighty river against the massive Sun is but a thread under a bulb. The massive cliff, a half eaten cookie. Giant houses morph into tiny squares.
Boundaries don’t exist! The map is not the territory. There is no end to the sky and Earth doesnt ‘start’ anywhere. They just merge. Everything is one!
Perhaps that is a good perspective to have as we grapple with our lives and work. To view everything as just a part of a large ‘oneness’. To view ourselves too. As connected beings.
Suddenly everything becomes easy. Kindness. Love. Compassion. Brotherhood. Affection. It is a a lovely emotion to hold tight to.
Take to the skies. Perhaps, in your mind. Go on. Close your eyes.
Fly.
There is a security guard, close to where I live. He smiles, waves and says a pleasant word. To everyone from the apartment complex who walks past his gate. It’s not ‘part of his job’. Yet, he does it with joy. It’s part of him.
He is a role model of sorts for me. For he stays generous with kindness and showers cheer with a garden hose, getting many mornings to bloom.
Random strangers and their acts of incredible kindness build pathways to the beautiful. Disconnected and unknown to each other perhaps. But not disjointed. Raw, uneven and rough. But, very real.
We miss seeing these and recognising these. Our perpetual quest for giant acts of kindness can blind us to grand moments that fill our daily lives. Staying alive to such makes it a grand life too.
Whatsay?
#travel #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #wanderlust #destinations #kindness #life #generosity #love #happiness #philanthropy #ordinarypeople (at Mumbai, India)
She is beautiful. With piercing blue eyes that are intense. I stand there, transfixed at her unbridled elegance and charm. Her wrinkles show up in large numbers when she smiles. She smiles often.
As the busy market in Cairo bustles by, she tells me her story. In broken English accented with an intact spirit.
Of sons, daughters and grand children. She has lead a very happy life, I can tell. She sells trinkets by the roadside.
As I prepare to leave, she takes a key chain from her beautiful collection and thrusts it into my pocket. “For you, my friend”, she says. With a charming smile and a bit of a wink adds, “ The friend who took the time to listen”. I couldn’t have stood there for more than 10 minutes, I think.
I insist on paying.
She insists on giving it to me for free. “Choose the right keys my friend”, she says and moves on.
People, their kindness and their wisdom is available to us always. Travel and discovery are good keys to open doors of the mind.
What roads are you on today?
#travel #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #story #truestory #Cairo #Egypt #people #culture #kindness #wisdom #joy #listening #life #keys #lategrams (at Cairo, Egypt)