On my afternoon walk I stood on the bridge where I do push ups. After a few reps I stopped and I lingered, standing there far longer than usual – watching the water move, watching the fish, noticing patterns, noticing the light. I don’t stand still very long usually, I’m normally racing on to the next thing, but in this moment I had nothing in particular to do next, this was enough. I just hung there, body relaxed, mind noticing, heart feeling, ears listening, and I consciously acknowledged the loveliness of this moment.

And then…blah, ha ha, squeak, chitter chatter. A group of cyclists came onto the bridge and stopped. And talked. And laughed. Loudly. I turned, saw them, then turned back and did an internal eye roll. Huh, they were ruining my moment.

And then…one of them came over and asked me to take a photo of her and her friends, and the river. My river. I happily obliged, made sure the composition was right, did a countdown, snap. And one more for luck.

Then I dropped my phone on the bridge and they all gasped. It slid really fast towards the edge…the suspense…and then it just stopped. One of the guys said he would’ve dived into the river for me. Aww. I felt bad for the eye roll now!

Around the corner, as I set off walking again, I saw two guys taking a photo of a tree. I pondered. Then I too saw the ibis, three of them on one branch. Sweet. Threes always remind me of my two sisters and I, although not my favourite bird I thought they might be related and that we had something in common. The guys walked on and I jumped into position. Snap.

As I walked off, a different cyclist noticed what I had noticed, and he smiled gently at me, acknowledging the appreciation of the nice moment of the Ibis in the tree.

All of us in that ten minutes of shared experiences were strangers. We were strangers noticing the same things, helping each other out, spreading kindness, spreading life.

I felt lonely when I started my walk. On the bridge looking at the water I felt lonely. I was wishing that my kids weren’t scared of the river and would walk and talk, or scooter or cycle next to me. One day perhaps they will. And then in that moment everything changed. Today I realised that I was most certainly not alone.

We all saw.

Love Stripes and Trees xxx

This is enough right now.

Recent troubles have me thinking, re-thinking, over thinking, making notes, making plans, reading articles…searching for an answer but not getting anywhere, except in tangles.

The troubles take me to the mountains and when I’m there the thinking continues but slowly gets dispersed by feelings. In the mountains I feel calm, content, comforted. It feels right.

So I’ll go with that for now.

Love Stripes & Trees xxx

Last week for the first time in seven and a half months I was able to go in through the gate at my children’s after school care. What a privilege.

I heard kids laughing, fighting, getting excited; I saw them running, doing handstands, lying on the floor; I saw different faces, different heights, I saw different school bags.

Sounds so normal but I had missed all of this kerfuffle. Only really seeing my own two, but not seeing them in their world.

I had a realisation that this moment in the day is very important to me. Usually racing around to a tight timeline, I hadn’t realised this before. The moment of pick up is not just about seeing them again after a long day and taking them home, it is about transition. The transition between school and home. Transition through their space. For months I had had to wait at the gate, sanitise, phone the centre and then wait.

Sometimes I waited impatiently, thinking about the next task on my to do list of life.Sometimes I felt frustrated that they were a bit grumpy when they saw me whereas I had been so excited to see them…but I never knew what they had come from, not knowing If they had been giggling or jumping…all I saw was two tired kids walking slowly towards me with big heavy backpacks on. I tried to engage but the questions were often answered with a drawn out monotonous ‘good’. So off we went to the next task.

But this day, when I in was in their space, I did not have to ask any questions. I could see for myself and they could see me seeing them. I was not impatient, I was soaking it up. Waiting for them to be ‘ready’ to come to me, noticing what they had been doing the second before I arrived, and then being able to continue this, finding out more, joining in, being included.

I am glad for these realisations, but COVID-19 can go away now…please.

Love Stripes & Trees xxx