The Neighbors 4: A Mindful Moment
When time is stopping to let you breathe
This is absolutely wonderful! - Anna inhaled another long view over the park with her mind. So many great things happening inside of her that she didn’t know how to express it all.
John studied her face with fascination - You look so happy. I haven’t seen such a content expression for a long while!
I am content, no doubt about that. Just a few days here at the castle and I feel at rest in a way that I never before have felt it. All this nature, the fresh air, the calm and kind people…
They both arrived at the sanatorium three days ago, but it felt like they were in a time bubble that extented endlessly to all sides. It was difficult to remember just what a typical day was like before going here.
They were sitting on a bench in the park near the sanatorium. Some clouds travelled over the sky and it was a bit windy, so they didn’t want to go too far away.
Anna had been on the phone just before, talking to her old friend Maria and trying to explain what exactly made her so happy - which Maria immediately had sensed that she was. And now Anna was again applauding the place, this time to John. He, on the other hand, was part of it, also being a patient, and he understood very well what was going on in her mind.
A year ago, John had been at the castle for the first time. He had suffered from a number of problems during the years, and his life quality was at the bottom. Having several illnesses means visiting doctors regularly, but it had only become too obvious during the last many visits that his main doctor was getting tired of him.
That doctor was in general looking tired. Maybe it is taking a too large toll on people to be exposed to other people’s problems every day, all day long? The doctor probably needed some rest himself. A long vacation. John was also looking tired, in his case being exposed to his own problems all the time. And John could also need a vacation. But how to get on a vacation from your own life?
In a moment of despair, you could think if you had been there and heard the conversation, but in retrospect something completely different - John had told this straight out - I need a vacation. You look like you could need one too!
The doctor had looked surprised, almost in disbelief, not being used to anyone caring about him and his health. But it was an immediate eye-opener for him. After having though a bit, he answered John, that there maybe was a possibility for John to have a vacation. He mentioned the sanatorium and how difficult it was to get a stay there, but he would be happy to write a recommendation and help John with the application.
And it had then taken a while with various paperwork and other bureaucracy, but suddenly one day, John’s phone was ringing - Yes? - This is from the sanatorium. We have scheduled a stay for you - You have? That’s great, thanks!
It was a year ago, and he had been there for a period of one month. And he had felt exactly like Anna was now feeling. He told her.
So now is your second stay here? - Anna was curious and wanted to hear more about the outcome - How was it to get back home after the stay, full of well-being?
It was amazing! My neighbors told me that I was like a new person, many years younger, now smiling at them instead of complaining about one or the other problem I saw. And I felt like they told me: younger.
For a while, I went for a long walk each day and I tried to eat like we do here at the castle - healthy and the right amount of everything.
Anna smiled at him and said, jokingly, that with yet another stay here, he would now become even younger and stronger, so he would become a child again.
He he, you are right. It looks like it would work this way. But the thing is…
Yes?
After a couple of months at home, all the regular things in my life began working the same way they had done previously. I lost that feeling of happiness and started seeing problems, and my back started hurting again, my knee caused me trouble, and I stopped walking, began eating like I had done before the sanatorium stay. Before long, I was back to the same old, and I mean old, me.
Oh! - The smile fainted a bit on Anna’s face as she began to realize the nature of what a sanatorium really does.
So you had an injection of happiness and well-being here at the fairy tale castle, a mindful moment, but it needed to fight the real world and its challenges when you got back - and in the end it lost?
You got it! - John regret that he had told her, because she looked so happy before, and now she had that worried expression that appears when people understand how life cannot be a fairy tale all the time. That there is no cure for life, really, only those mindful moments that make us forget about the problems for a while.
But he had not understood what an enchanting way of thinking Anna had.
You know, then you and I will simply fill up our ressources during our stay here, get the maximum out of it and then stay in touch afterwards, helping each other keeping the moment going forever. How about that? - She sent him a warm smile that covered all of her beautiful face.
Yes, I would like that very much! - John took her hand in his - I’m double happy now for getting here one more time.
That happens to me every time I go on vacation. It's apparently a thing— the vacation blues. The same thing happens to honeymooners or people who are, for example, training for a triathlon. Once a certain goal is met and you need to face mundane, everyday problems, everything goes back. But you made an important point: even if everything is the same, including us (which I question, I think we are hardly ever the same), we need those spaces to recharge.