Always keep your eyes open
Valletta, Malta, 2015
One lesson I have to learn over and over again is to keep myself open spontaneity. Too often, I spend time hyper-focused on the outcome, on completing a task or reaching a goal. At work, these traits might be good, on vacation, they might drive your family around the bend.
That's why Karen is the perfect partner for me.
In 2015, we were in Malta, a series of three islands halfway between Italy and Libya. Karen and I were on our way to a museum in the capital city of Valletta. Never mind that we had no reason to be in a rush, the museum wasn't expected to be crowded and it would be open for several more hours, I was walking fast, trying to get there as quickly as possible.
I turned a corner and realized that in the crowd of people I'd lost Karen. I went back around the corner and Karen was running towards me. "You're going to miss it!" she shouted.
We ran up the block and saw shutters on apartment windows opening up. Two and three stories high, the shutters were propped open and baskets were lowered on ropes to street level. There, a man went from basket to basket and collected the money that had been put in the basket. In Maltese, he shouted up at the woman at the other end of the rope. She shouted back, he nodded and went to his little truck where he retrieved their order, placed it in the basket and it was hauled back up.
Although this video is only a minute long, we stood there watching this scene of daily life unfold, as it likely has for decades, for a half hour.
And we still made it to the museum with plenty of time to spare.
That's why Karen is the perfect partner for me.
In 2015, we were in Malta, a series of three islands halfway between Italy and Libya. Karen and I were on our way to a museum in the capital city of Valletta. Never mind that we had no reason to be in a rush, the museum wasn't expected to be crowded and it would be open for several more hours, I was walking fast, trying to get there as quickly as possible.
I turned a corner and realized that in the crowd of people I'd lost Karen. I went back around the corner and Karen was running towards me. "You're going to miss it!" she shouted.
We ran up the block and saw shutters on apartment windows opening up. Two and three stories high, the shutters were propped open and baskets were lowered on ropes to street level. There, a man went from basket to basket and collected the money that had been put in the basket. In Maltese, he shouted up at the woman at the other end of the rope. She shouted back, he nodded and went to his little truck where he retrieved their order, placed it in the basket and it was hauled back up.
Although this video is only a minute long, we stood there watching this scene of daily life unfold, as it likely has for decades, for a half hour.
And we still made it to the museum with plenty of time to spare.
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