On Travel

I like travel. Especially when I'm alone and not driving. Trains are my absolute favourite, but coaches get some of the way there. It gives me a great sense of purpose and even capability. I can successfully get myself, complete and unharmed, from one side of the country to the other with minimal hassle and fuss. There's a certain comfort to not being in control - the train being late is a fact, there's nothing I can do to stop it being late and it's not my fault, I can just go with it.
I love looking out of the window and seeing the countryside (or city or town) go by, not interacting with it myself but just observing. I feel very serene.
If I want to I can distract myself with crochet or postcard-writing or even buy a newspaper in the station and do the Su Doku. I'm already using this time productively by travelling so I can indulge in my favourite idle pastimes, the things that aren't coursework and homework and don't really matter, that are definitely Not Work. Committing time to enjoyment is something I'm not terribly good at (I usually end up with a miserable mixture) but being on a train helps me leave that behind. I tell myself that I couldn't reasonably be doing anything else so it's alright. I think that this is how my art therapy sessions worked - someone was telling me that for this hour and a half every week I *could* play with paper and scissors and paint and just be in the moment and lose myself in the creative process.
Perhaps I'm reading a bit much into this but I really do love being on trains.

Sarah Rooftops wrote a post today about watching things go by from train windows, which inspired me to turn these photos into a blog post. Thankyou Sarah :)