As I was walking to work this morning some kids I walked passed said: “Excuse me, can you tell me what time it is?” Wearing a watch I was able to give them the time before continuing on my way with a smile on my face. I smiled because I remembered how many times children (and sometimes adults also) would come up to me in Brazil and ask what time it was, clearly not needing or even wanting to know the time. Their aim was to find out if I spoke Portuguese. How can I know this? Well, apart from the giggles as they reported back to their friends, and the shocked expressions on their faces when this blond-foreign-looking woman understood and could answer their question, some of them actually wearing a watch while asking sort of gave them away.
“Where can I find life?” has been a question I have asked myself a lot recently (but really for years). And really the deeper question is: “What is life, and what does it look like?” I guess the simple answer is whatever makes you feel alive on the inside; that brings a smile to your face; and that gives you energy and increases your capacity. There are so many side-effects of burn-out; or maybe they are rather causes of burn-out, which when combined become a huge mountain that can topple even the strongest of people. But once you have been depleted of your capacity to stand in the face of the challenges around you, one of the things that can help increase your energy and capacity is finding pockets of life. (And of course a lot of other things like rest, exercise, patience when the process is slow, setting boundaries etc. but that’s for another blogpost). The past months I’ve been watching and searching and paying attention. Searching for choices that will bring life, and paying att