Staff post! This month, Lucy Duggan has shared about her regular train journeys and what they mean for her.
To see my family regularly I do a lot of traveling on the train – Bristol to London, Bristol to Devon and across and up and back again. I take these journeys so much I could almost do them with my eyes closed. But I don’t, because then I would miss the endless miles of sky and countryside I get to look at as I am speeding towards my destination. FYI Here’s what the sky’s face looks like above the fields between Taunton and Tiverton:
I love train journeys because they feel so orderly and peaceful. Everyone is sitting together on this little carriage that moves so fast but feels strangely still. All the people on board are going the same way to different places. I find it a very good opportunity for people-watching and often draw fellow passengers surreptitiously. Sometimes I get caught and they ask to see what I’ve drawn. Although this is initially embarrassing it always ends up being a friendly encounter, I don’t think my renderings have offended anyone so far.
Something else I like about all these train journeys is that they FORCE me to stop, and be still and in the moment. I think I am like a lot of people in that I fall into the habit of ricocheting from one task to the next. Days can too easily become a chain of ceaseless action, where I only stop to attend to basic bodily functions like eating and going to the loo. Sometimes I ask myself ‘what’s the rush?’ but once you’ve built up a momentum and you are used to living like that it can be hard to stop, or even slow down.
Unlike a lot of traveling I find train journeys don’t make me tired. The stillness and the time spent staring out at the clouds and fields, reading or doodling or writing down the conversations of other passengers seems to recharge my energy and not deplete it. It’s funny how routine journeys that can end up constituting a significant portion of our lives are often done on auto-pilot, purely a means to and end and something to be got through when they can become a pleasant experience in an of themselves. So long as you’ve got a seat.
