Watch the World Go By

We spend so much of our lives hurrying from one thing to the next that we rarely just stop and look at any of it. Everything is on the way to something else. Even the walk to the shop is a task with a start and an end.

So here is a gentle idea for today. Find a bench, or a spot by a window, and simply watch the world go by. That is the whole of it. There is no second part.

People off to wherever they are going, all of them in the middle of a day as complicated as yours. Birds. Dogs, who are always excellent value. The light changing, the clouds drifting along at their own pace. Somebody having an argument on the phone. A bus.

There is a surprising amount of comfort in it, and I think it is this. Life is busily carrying on all around you, entirely under its own steam, and you are part of it without having to do anything to earn your place. Nothing out there needs your input. It is all just happening.

You do not have to do anything or be anywhere. Just sit for a while and take it in. It is a small, easy kindness to yourself, and it costs nothing but the twenty minutes.