Tag: Self absorption

Self Absorption.

My regular readers know that I go for a walk every evening at our neighbourhood park. A paved circular path for walkers and a separate one for joggers running parallel to the walking path is provided there. I normally take seven laps of the path every day.

Yesterday, as I was coming round on the eastern side of the park, I saw a flashing light from a young lady sitting on the lawn in the middle of the park. As I got closer and ahead of her, I saw that she was holding a small powder compact in her hand and was applying lipstick. The flashing light was the setting sun reflecting from the mirror. I kept walking.

For the next six laps, every time I passed her, I saw her totally absorbed in the hand held mirror, though she was no longer applying any make-up.

I finished my rounds and sat to rest and pass some time with my friends in our usual perch at the south end of the park from where I could clearly see the lady. I sat around for another half hour with my friends, and the lady was still there still looking at her reflection in the compact, when I left.

A total period of an hour and twenty minutes, and she was totally engrossed in her reflection. Perhaps she sat for some more time after I left. She was totally alone, dressed in a track suit and walking shoes, but she neither walked nor socialized with anyone. She simply sat there all alone, and looked at herself.

I am zapped. I have no idea what this self absorption could mean. Do you have any ideas?

Do We Stop To Appreciate And Smell The Roses?

I bet that most of us would say, “who has got the time?”

I had gone out to the nearby jogger’s park earlier this evening and as I was nearing it, two stunningly charming children were coming towards me. They were accompanied by their mother who was obviously very proud her children. I stopped and had a little chat with the youngsters and with some prodding from the mother, they told me all about their school, what they were doing now, now that is the summer vacation and many other things that were obviously of importance to them.

I decided that I had taken enough of their time and was about to bid them goodbye when the mother asked me why I had stopped and chatted with the children and whether I had grandchildren of my own. I replied in the negative and added that I just felt the need to connect to such delightful children. The younger child, must have been about five, presented me with a rose and said that she too had stopped to spend some time in their garden and she had got her mother to get her a rose to carry with her. I accepted the rose, thanked her for being so generous and parted company.

Since then, I have been thinking about this simple matter and went back to couple of years ago when a Washington Post article had caught my attention. Please spare some time and read this totally believable yet interesting article.

Are you like those commuters not bothered to stop and listen, or to stop to watch and smell a rose in bloom? Where are you going?