When I’m restocking the wild bird feeders and it feels like I’m an extra in Hitchcock’s “The Birds” as a hundred feathery eyes are watching my every move.
And then I look down and all the fish in our pond are demanding attention as well.
The worst day here beats 90% of my days in London.
A magical moment, 60 years old, came to mind recently while reading about Livingstone’s travels & exploits in Africa!
I had borrowed my brother’s bike, loaded it with camping gear, and cycled from home in London, to Dover. I then spent three months cycling through France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, then to Calais, and finally back to Dover, on £50, which was all you could take abroad then.
My brother’s bicycle came to a stop mid-morning, on a Sunday, in the middle of quiet and peaceful countryside, in Germany. The ball bearings in the front wheel spindle had died the death, with the tarmac road meandering away in front of me, and with no sight or sound of people or buildings anywhere.
What to do?
I walked a little way with a creaking front wheel when I saw a building set back from the road, poking out between some trees. It looked like a workshop of some kind. I pushed open a door which led into a small courtyard, where I came face to face with…a mechanic!
I spoke no German and I assumed he spoke no English, so I gestured. Without a word he took my bike, removed the front wheel, took the spindle apart, did a Ronnie Corbett - searching through a wall of small drawers - until he found a tin of ball bearings of the correct size.
He cleaned out the spindle, packed it with grease, loaded it with new ball bearings, reassembled everything, saw me to the door and we parted with a friendly handshake.
All of this without a word being spoken.
That definitely is magical.
Humans can be so generous, compassionate, communicative, empathic.
Then there is the rest of the species.
As they say - the problem is not so much that it is a rat race, it’s that the rats always win.
Camping alone in the wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario and waking to mist on the lake; then paddling the canoe into it with only the loons and their echoing calls for company.
Waking up on a merchant ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean with flat calm waters marked only by holes made by giant jellyfish.
An amazing sight.
Winning a competitive tender.
