The Train Story

Actually it is not really a story about trains. Although it tells about them. Do you remember being the first time at a railway station? Well, the first time ever, I mean. That first time when you were still wondering about snakes of wagons arriving and leaving the station. Exactly that first time. You know this was the time everything seemed possible and I do mean everything. Every direction could have been reached on that single crossroad. You looked at the windows of leaving trains and those faces behind them smiling at you. Where to go all those people? And again you were curious about reasons that make people travelling those trains.

Was it not a great adventure being the very first time at a train station? Everywhere you have seen different impressions to wonder about. It might just have been that caring smile from an elderly woman, or the couple kissing each other a last good buy, or just the trains themselves.

Of course you have not been all on your own that very first time. You did not decide which train yours would be. So you followed the people you were with. Again and again you went to that very same station and with the same train in the same direction. Sometime you just stopped wondering about all those possibilities at this cross point. Don't you agree?

Now imagine you just would see the train station as if it were the very first time ever. Would you not try to figure out were all the trains are going to? Figure out that you could end up in China or Greece or simply in the next town? Just because after one train ride there is another station with many other possibilities and then another station and so on and on. Suddenly the train station becomes a place where you could get everywhere from if you would choose so. Would you not start asking yourself, how you would feel while choosing a different train and anywhere where you would end up?

But then it is easy and comfortable to follow the used directions. You know where to go, what you have to expect and how long it will take. But deep in yourself there is a seed that is starting to grow in that very same moment. What if you miss out an opportunity, if you never try a different route or direction? Will you regret one time?

Most will decide to stay with the same train, in the same direction. Am I right? There is nothing wrong with that. Honestly I would say it is very brave to do so.
For all who decide to give it a go and jump on another train, you quickly will find out that it is not as exciting as expected. You have to make decisions about the next stop, the next direction and sometimes you will even get stranded on a station for hours. You will ask yourself, why did I change my directions, or was it the right decision going new ways at all.

So what is this story about then?
Haven't I told you that? Not really? Well, it is a story about being curious and especially staying so. It is a story about having a choice and being aware of it. It is also a story about your life and what you make out of it and about you, because you are your own crossroad to start off. And of course it is a story about trains, moving snakes, wagons and possibilities leaving and arriving stations everywhere in the world.