157 - Thinking of Others

After a vexatious day, grappling with over blown tech and feeling petulant (Apple Homepod is a ball of bullshit), I went out for a drink in town.

We decided to watch an event organised to commemorate 80 years since the devastation of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. Volunteers teamed up to send floating lights along the river. It made me feel very different than I'd felt, listening to a 'story' about it on the news earlier. More compassionate. I was touched by the efforts of these people who live thousands of miles away from Japan. 

They took great care to tidy up as they went along. There were a team of (quite elderly) litter pickers, with waders and improvised fishing rods, gamely paddling and stumbling around the shallow water, catching the bobbing lights before they were swept downstream.

It reminded me of the day we saw the otter and her pups, because it was the same stretch of river and an event in itself.