You can understand your life better by looking back.
My own, can sometimes be like a series of chaotic events – completely unrelated to each other. However, there is a common denominator in all this, a common line that connects them. The older I get, the more I see it.
Some time ago I traded my car for buses, trains and trams. Plus, on your own feet. A lot has changed since then.
I have a two-hour drive to work one way. I come back late in the evening and sometimes at night. It’s like I’m coming from a long journey.
Quite unexpectedly, I discovered many advantages of this way of traveling. The last time I did this was when I was half my age.
Experiencing it now, at the age of 51, takes me back to when I was still a schoolboy or student. All the more it is an opportunity to confront your old way of thinking. To meet your dreams, plans, intentions.
In addition, after many years of living in different places – I am currently walking exactly the same roads as I used to … a long time ago.
The difference, however, is that I now traverse them all simultaneously. Sometimes even on the same day.
When I was a kid, I wanted to explore the „wider world”. I made up my mind that I would get on a bus of a given line and ride it to the end. And then I’ll go to the other end again. And then I’ll change the bus number.
That’s how I got to know what was around the next bend, and then around the next. I drove, thought and watched.
In a way – after years, I came back to something similar….
I also like to change my routes.
There are so many things you don’t notice when you’re driving a car. This is one of the first observations I made.
And when you walk for a change – everything happens slower, deeper, more intense. You touch the life around you more directly. You feel it stronger.
Paradoxically, changing the car for my own feet – I do not lose priceless time at all. I think freely, listen to audio materials. I do exactly what I like.
It was also an unexpected surprise for me that I pass by buses in important places of my history.
They used to be like different eras for me, and now they are becoming one coherent story that I understand better and better.
For example, I pass the house where I grew up. I pass schools and universities, places of work and apartments, from which I remember so much good.
And all this within one day.
Through the big windows of the bus, I look at it a bit like my own film. It’s like I’m about to understand something right now… I didn’t plan it at all.
…
I think that each of us has a life path with many dots. Sometimes we don’t connect them. And as in children’s books, only combining them together – a picture emerges for us.
Everything was for a purpose and had value.
And understanding this allows you to live a fuller and wiser life.
I wish that for everyone.