.. and that’s not a bad thing.

Today was a bright and beautiful day, so I chose to hit a close by trail with a friend. After about couple of hours of hiking, we found a peaceful spot in a shade by the lake. We were sitting and chatting away when a lady walked to us.

I had seen her standing and watching the horizon of the lake holding a bottle of water and her stance had not changed for quite a while. When she walked over I gave a friendly wave and started the conversation. That’s when I realized she wasn’t acting normal. She wasn’t speaking clearly and kept looking at my backpack asking “What have you got in there?”

Although it was a bit creepy, I did not feel threatened. I said it’s just my backpack here. She repeated the same question like 3-4 times “What’s in there?” So I humoured her, I said here’s my bottle, here’s my notebook and then thought maybe she was hungry. I dug in to retrieve a chocolate croissant (individually wrapped) and held it up saying “I’ve got this, interested?” She immediately reached out taking it and said thank you.

Then she started mumbling “I like to walk alone and that’s not a bad thing.” She kept saying that over and over again. I smiled and said “Of course. It’s absolutely fine if you want to enjoy this weather alone.” But it didn’t look like she was registering anything that was being said, she seemed to be in her own thoughts.

I pulled out a few candies I had stashed in another pocket, held them out to her in my palm and asked “Want some of these?” She grabbed all of them and said “Thank you. I like to walk alone, and that’s not a bad thing.”

But I could see she was happy with what she got, she kept turning around saying thank you and went back to her bench resuming her initial stance of staring into the horizon.

She wasn’t a homeless person, or at least she didn’t look like one. She was dressed in athletic wear, maybe in her late twenties (I am not good at guessing age, let’s just say she was young) and seemed healthy enough. Anyways, what struck me were the words that seemed to have chained her thoughts today.

“I like walking alone, and that’s not a bad thing.”

Human minds are impossible to figure out. And not everything needs to be analyzed. Sometimes things and events can just be what they are. However her words seemed very random yet very profound. May be her repeating these words endlessly made an impression on me, nevertheless, it indeed isn’t a bad thing. And I hope she finds what she is searching for.

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When Silence Speaks...

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