Two hours ago I left my Dutch classroom after a long morning session.  The intense concentration was wearing on my body and soul.  I felt barraged by the new and sometimes incomprehensible.

And then to Izy Coffee to recover.  I read lots of stuff on my phone about the Ronde van Vlaanderen, tomorrow’s epic bicycle race near here.

I love writing but today I knew I had nothing to give.  The body was depressed – not the heart but the body.

My ego was treading water, knowing that I had written a blog post for 45 straight days.  “Oh well.  I’ll start again tomorrow.”  Still, I kept searching for a topic and the energy to write about it.  Nothing.

Without any thought of “Do this to produce that” I looked over to the woman sitting at the other end of the couch and asked her if she was visiting Ghent.  She smiled and we talked … about her being an American living in Switzerland, me having moved to Ghent from Canada, the spiritual energy in this city, American and Canadian accents, and a certain bicycle race!

Her boyfriend walked in and he and I compared notes about the magnificent Canadian city of Vancouver. 

The three of us chatted away about this, that and the other thing … and then it was time for them to be tourists again – off to Gravensteen, Ghent’s castle.

***

And guess what I’m doing?

Writing

The mind … one of life’s mysteries