Retreat

Something's changed with me lately. Warm weather last week made me feel as in a foreign country. A longing for air drove me out of my office and I headed across the parking lot towards a nearby hill. Climbing up through the lush vegetation I found a bench where I sat down and read a paper I had brought. Far below me was the parking-lot I had passed through, my work place, and across the street, behind a row of houses, the apartment complex where I live.

How curious it felt, looking at the tourists or the people on the terrassess below me. Just as so often happens when I'm travelling I was struck by everything around me - as if my idle thoughts, for lack of anything better to do, would just grasp at anything on which my senses happened to rest and start busying themselves with producing not-yet-conscious thoughts. Whatever happened to reach the level of consciousness I was happy to let slip back into forgetfulness. That's the best thing to do with ideas. Wherever I'm going, I can only enter empty-handed anyway...

If you're tired, allow yourself to forget. Valuable ideas are like friends, they return. 

Retreats are good. Cafés sometimes work, if they're not too noisy. But if the weather's nice, I recommend walking and finding a bench thirty meters above ground.