Kandinskyesque
Tele-Holic
I got a dose of traffic rage yesterday. I didn't take it out on anyone, I just internalised it, which I'm aware is just as bad, if not worse for the health, because it lasts much, much longer.
I had left the house to do the 45-60 minute drive to see the neuro guy and on leaving the house wondered why the traffic was going at 15-20mph maximum when these quiet rural roads are generally 60+mph (apart from the bendy parts).
I soon found out that there were three separate cycling events happening between me and my destination and the cycling packs had Police escorts that wouldn't allow any overtaking.
My only alternative was a 90-120 minute drive over a couple of mountain/hill passes, so I phoned my neuro guy to cancel but he offered to delay my appointment for 2 hours.
Still incandescent, I took the detour and saw this...
a hill called the "Meikle Bin".
I grew up seeing this hill from my bedroom window, every day for 20 years, I've climbed it several times. There's even the remnants of a WWII Fairey Firefly fighter (now in a cage, I'm told) on the side of the hill. I have a sliver of metal from it in my fishing drawer that I took as a 14y/o before they put the cage around it.
...The difference was that from my bedroom from 1970-90, I saw the hill from the other side, the south/SSE side and here was me now looking at its northern/NNW slopes.
I was only another 30 minutes drive to my appointment and had 90 minutes in which to get there, so I took the opportunity to pull into a layby, remove the socks and boots, stick my feet in a stream for half an hour, while sitting on the bank with my flask of coffee and just enjoy the view.
Then the thought came to me... PERSPECTIVE!!!
Most of the time the world ain't gonna bend to my will and my plans, no matter how angry and frustrated I get.
Sometimes I just have to stop fighting the unfightable and just let the world happen to me.
Then sometimes the world will happen good things to me: even if it's just the simple pleasure of a coffee in the May sunshine, looking at nature with the feeling of clear, cold, clean water between my toes.
I had left the house to do the 45-60 minute drive to see the neuro guy and on leaving the house wondered why the traffic was going at 15-20mph maximum when these quiet rural roads are generally 60+mph (apart from the bendy parts).
I soon found out that there were three separate cycling events happening between me and my destination and the cycling packs had Police escorts that wouldn't allow any overtaking.
My only alternative was a 90-120 minute drive over a couple of mountain/hill passes, so I phoned my neuro guy to cancel but he offered to delay my appointment for 2 hours.
Still incandescent, I took the detour and saw this...
a hill called the "Meikle Bin".
I grew up seeing this hill from my bedroom window, every day for 20 years, I've climbed it several times. There's even the remnants of a WWII Fairey Firefly fighter (now in a cage, I'm told) on the side of the hill. I have a sliver of metal from it in my fishing drawer that I took as a 14y/o before they put the cage around it.
...The difference was that from my bedroom from 1970-90, I saw the hill from the other side, the south/SSE side and here was me now looking at its northern/NNW slopes.
I was only another 30 minutes drive to my appointment and had 90 minutes in which to get there, so I took the opportunity to pull into a layby, remove the socks and boots, stick my feet in a stream for half an hour, while sitting on the bank with my flask of coffee and just enjoy the view.
Then the thought came to me... PERSPECTIVE!!!
Most of the time the world ain't gonna bend to my will and my plans, no matter how angry and frustrated I get.
Sometimes I just have to stop fighting the unfightable and just let the world happen to me.
Then sometimes the world will happen good things to me: even if it's just the simple pleasure of a coffee in the May sunshine, looking at nature with the feeling of clear, cold, clean water between my toes.
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