Earning kindness

Going away made me realise in a whole new way how lucky I am to have my own home, to live somewhere near my work, to enjoy what I do (most of the time), to be able to afford to do things I like doing (well, reading newspapers and books doesn’t cost much in most places I guess, but it can be quite hard to find a nice place to do it), to be able to go for a walk and not worry about getting frostbite, to be able to drink good coffee just about anywhere I go, to be able to see people I care about regularly (with a few major exceptions). I know lots of you want to hear more specific details from the trip, but like Graham says, ‘I don’t really do “I-did-this-I-did-that” blogging anymore’. A lot of the talks I gave are still works in progress and I’ll be giving them again over the next little while. The rest will find its way out at the right time, I’m sure. But these are the lessons lingering right now - the extraordinary kindnesses that are the surprising delights of risking taking yourself a long way from home:

Lasse’s lasagna and Marika’s Sunday night waffles; people generally giving me clothes; Susanna’s welcome to and farewell from Helsinki dinners, and perpetual schnapps stipulations; Jenny coming to sit next to me after her keynote even tho I was late, and her tantrum that the keynote table at the conference dinner was ‘hierarchical’ because she wanted to sit with her friends; people speaking in English even tho it’s harder, and constantly interpreting so I didn’t feel left out; regular paternal SMS; welcome to London presents, shaky hugs and accidental declarations; generous hosts that think of bananas as well as croissants; genuinely interested and caring colleagues; nice booze and boys in hotel rooms; follow-up emails after happy meetings; tulips, books, dinners and a houseboat; timeless, placeless moments in the company of someone important; a beautiful familiar face at the airport after two long haul flights and very little sleep; ridiculously many welcome home messages.

All these things make me realise that my life in Brisbane is small, rather selfish and, above all, really easy. If going away made me even more attached to it, then what I need to do now is learn a few more ways to begin to deserve it.