Making the most of an unscheduled journey

Under the towers
Brampton, ON
July 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I was out the door long before dawn today so I could catch a train for the two-hour ride into Toronto. A day of intense work lay ahead for me and my colleagues.

Because a life well lived isn't based on a script, a delightful surprise awaited me and my fellow passengers as we arrived at the downtown London station before boarding: A delay, thanks to an overnight freight train derailment near Paris, Ontario.

We ended up taking a seriously roundabout route through a bunch of towns I'd never seen before, and by the time we pulled into Toronto, we were 90 minutes late and my first meeting of the day was up in smoke.

But here's the thing: Other people had it worse. Colleagues on later trains reported delays of up to 4 or 5 hours. And I'm guessing in many other parts of the world, there were people who wished their biggest problem could be a late train.

I was gifted extra time to remotely collaborate with my peeps, slam out some really cool writing, and catch up on a few other pieces of work.

When I was done the serious stuff, I was also given new places to observe and shoot. And while the lighting was muddy and flat, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to shoot through filthy glass with nothing more than a smartphone. Guerilla photography is great fun: Try it sometime.

I predict more trips in my future - and I look forward to them all - but none will play out exactly as this one did. That script thing, again: That's not how good life gets lived.

Probably doesn't hurt to get the occasional reminder of that, though.

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