With Eyes of Appreciation

 

7:15 am.

Downtown St. Louis.

Outside my company's new building. The arch only a couple blocks away.

I enter the city feeling a bit bedraggled, after a very early morning flight, arriving with the dawn to the city I visit each year for a corporate event of gatherings. I could have been groggy and slightly irritable at the inconvenience of a super early wake up of 2:45 am, lack of a breakfast and good coffee, and spending a few hours 38,000 feet above the land on a dark plane journey sitting next to strangers when I could have been in bed. 

But, instead, I am very grateful. My eyes are wide open, fully awake. I find myself marveling. Despite the personal inconveniences of travel, I don't see it as a negative thing. Part of the joy of travel is the adaptation to the surroundings and observations of the scenes. Part of the journey I don't mind too much is the ride - whether it be by train or plane. I get out my book and read the hours away. I look up to view what's going by the windows. I appreciate what is set before me.

And upon arrival after a journey, I sigh a prayer of thanks with a sense of coming to a safe place. Perhaps a place where I know a few people. In this case, a work event, knowing many people (and also not knowing many people). My routine is off its course, my social skills (or lack thereof) kick in. I find myself thrown into a place where I am stretched as an introvert. I know it is good for me, though. I get to meet or catch-up with some very nice people. I get to go up to the 17th floor and take a peak at the office spaces and all the accompanying views of the city, which I personally love to experience in any city. Going to a tall point is one of my favourite things to do in a city, to get to see the outline and expanse. To be able to place the space in a context from above helps me feel more grounded in a wonderfully paradoxical way.

The days speed by in a blur, somehow feeling like multiple days squeezed into each one. Somehow overflowing and full, I wonder how the seams of the day aren't bursting. Travel, whether for work or holiday, sets time to a different pace. It may not be a pace set by yourself, but by others. This might be an uncomfortable feeling, and you can either choose to let go of your own agenda and enjoy that momentary scene before you, or feel trapped in a scene you cannot escape, set upon you by others. It's all about your choice in that view. I have come to St. Louis every year (at least once a year) for the last nine years and I think I see it with eyes of appreciation better and better each time.