Wedding

What a wonderful weekend. One of my very best friends got married this weekend. The weather was amazing (actually it still is), the location was lovely, (we had dinner in an organic vegetable garden) and we were all together. Around 1 o'clock in the morning the last song was played, we all sang together, looked at the gorgeous couple, and waved them goodbye. Some of us cried a little, others asked for another drink and sat down.

I cycled home with a big smile on my face. Just loving life. The whole city seemed to enjoy life to the fullest this weekend. In some place the city was still bustling of energy, in other places it was dark and quiet.

The wedding gave me such a sense of community: all these little kids running around, grandparents, friends of friends and even great-grandparents. Cycling home my city did not feel like a big city, but felt like a little village. Young boys were getting in their spray-painted VW-van. Some people were loud, another was very quiet and focused on cycling straight. Most of us on our way home.
All of us caught up in our own lives, our own community. I sat down at my balcony for a little bit, and looked at my neighbour across the street. At this time it was around three in the morning. It was quiet, except noise that seemed to be the noise of a vacuumcleaner.

I looked at her movements, ( I could only see her head and arms) but her movements seemed to fit with the noise of the vacuumcleaner.
She was vacuuming her livingroom. It was such a lonely image. To me that city seemed full of happy people. But she was vacuuming her livingroom.

But also,: this city gives you the freedom to vacuum you livingroom whenever you want to. There is nothing wrong with that.

And it struck because I felt like I was spying on her. I was sitting there, looking at her, the movements, her facial expression. I was sitting there in the dark and felt like I was intruding in her personal life.

But maybe it was the perfect ending for the day. This stranger, so comfortable with vacuuming her house at this time of day. She did not seem to care of the rest of her world right now and she was just happy in her little house, her home.

I went to bed, slept and just had my morning coffee.