Hello Self!

Just returned from a beautiful wedding in Devon - my Godson, lots of friends and family—it was truly a joyful occasion. And you know the weather was so hot..... One lunchtime in town we bought bottles of water. So with one of the bottles, just fooling around, I said how hard the cap was to get off, and then after a while I had the gradual sinking realisation that actually—no matter how hard I tried—the cap wasn’t coming off at all! 

So I leaned the bottle on a wall outside a pub, and sawing slowly and gently away at the plastic with a pen-knife, twisting harder and harder and doing a lot of looking and breathing—it still would not budge. But I was being Mindful and not forcing anything at all and really taking my time and quite enjoying the moments. 

Suddenly, a disembodied hand appeared from under a screen on the wall and a voice said, “Do you want a hand with that mate?! (He must have been watching this little scene all along through the gap) So I gave the unseen person the bottle and quick as a flash he had the top off in no time and handed it back to me. It was so funny. It was hilarious. I said thanks and peeking round the corner of the screen saw him return to his group sitting around a table. I swear there was something wrong with the manufacture of the cap on that particular bottle—I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t strong enough to open a water bottle! Hello Self!! There you are again.....

Mindful Car Parking

So Legoland on the hottest day of the year was my daughter’s idea of a fun day out just for me and my granddaughter—with millions of other people there who had the free entry tokens, coach-loads of them! 

And it was fun and we did enjoy ourselves, until at the end of the day, I realized the fatal mistake of not having made a note of where we had parked the car. Not very Mindful. So I was able to be Mindful then, noticing all my catastrophising thoughts and seeing the reactions of Romily who variously in the space of seconds, went from very upbeat and positive to tear-shuddering cries of despair that we would never find the car and we’d have to walk home (60 miles). 

Slowly and Mindfully we reconstructed our memory of arriving and bit by bit together we found the little Smart car and boy was I glad! Needless to say I now have an app for finding your car in a car park—so all I have to do is be Mindful enough to remember to use it!

British Grand Prix

Silverstone, British Grand Prix last week - and I was there! It was a joyous and really memorable occasion for me and my brother on a boys day out. The senses came alive to the roar and scream of the engines, the masses of excited people and the glaring heat. We had a terrific grandstand view and there was so much going on it was dizzying to take it all in. 

And what caught my attention - in a way - had nothing to do with the race. It was a young man in a wheelchair at the front of the stand. Dressed in white vest and shorts, his left arm was missing from the shoulder, his right lower leg was missing below the knee and he was covered in scars. He must have been no more than 20, had a perfect face; untouched by violence, close-cropped hair, and the brightest smile - the brightest smile you could ever wish for - the untroubled smile of a young man really enjoying himself. He was completely relaxed, wheeling back and forth to chat to his friends having fun and crossing his legs to stretch out on the barrier - absolutely no sense of shame, embarrassment, awkwardness, insecurity or anything, just really together within himself and almost balletic in his poise. 

I told myself he must be a soldier - one of many injured in this way. The thing is, he was getting on with his life and he was fully appreciating every moment of it. I was moved to tears hidden and enveloped by the crowd. I will never forget him and I am so grateful to have witnessed this passing moment.