A Sliver of Life

Watching the world through a bus window. I feel as if this is how I’m travelling the world these days, city to city on more busses, boats and trains then I can count and yet on each one I gain another insight into the lives of the people around me. You can see a lot of life through the window of a bus; sure there is beautiful scenery to be seen, forests of palm trees, sandy white beaches and big parks. There is always activity – if its busy streets with bicycles and horse carts backed up in front of luxury cars trying to avoid hundreds of motorbikes zooming past carrying whole families, young lovers, old men or just people on their way to work. Each journey brings new pieces of a the big puzzle of life because in that one instant that you pass by someone you see a sliver of their life, vulnerable for the world to see – an old man selling fruits out of his portable cart, a woman comforting a crying baby, a door opens and you see a Muslim woman laying out a mat to pray or a family gathered around for their evening meal - each doorway is a slice of life. Most people don’t stop to see the beauty in the small things, maybe it’s intrusive of me, but when I pass by I like to imagine the person’s story, I only get one glimpse into their big, complicated lives but that glimpse is a part of their story and in my head I make up the rest. If you take the time to look you might never want to look away, but as the bus keeps moving you cannot linger too long. Life is fleeting, everyone says that, but if you don’t take the time to see life, you might miss what was there, because as the bus roles on, all you take with you is the memory of one glimpse and the story that could be.