Work duties bring me back to Vienna, Austria this week-the city I find me to be my happiest self.
The number of times I’ve been here are countless. But each time I’m here, I fall truly, madly, and deeply in love with this wonderful city.
It’s not that I go to the finest restaurants or see the tourist sites. Those are the last things I do. Instead, I find the coffee shops frequented by the locals. I take the Strassenbahn to work just to observe the Viennese culture. And I shop at the Naschmarkt so I can pretend, if only for a week, that this is my home.
Because my German speaking is poor, rarely do I engage in conversations when I’m exploring. But what ensues is my internal voice reminding me just how richly life has showered me with gifts. Gifts like this experience. Gifts like other experiences.
And with John Coltrane filling the background of the cafe I visited for dinner and this in my foreground, I took stock of things, only to find just how amazing life has been.
That’s not to say that the life I’ve lived has been easy, it’s just that I’ve chosen to accept the things I’ve been given as gifts with the greatest gift in just loving this life I’ve been given.