There’s a line in an Olivia Dean song (I know because Sammy belts it out every time the song rotates on her playlist) that goes: “The grass is greener where you water it.”
Nice, Olivia. I was thinking about it today as my colleague Andy and I worked on a project in London. It is the easiest thing in the world to wish you were somewhere else, and the hardest to cultivate your current life. And yet the harder of the two routes leads to contentment.
Contentment. Watering your own grass and not yearning for the other side of the river. Wanting for nothing more than you already have.
I need to be more thankful. Listening to podcasts on the train reminds me that there are some wealthy, powerful people out there who still have unfulfilled appetites, and are poorer and hungrier than anyone could guess. And me, on the train, wondering what brings the myriad of people into London - and how each looks like they would rather be anywhere else.
I wonder whether Olivia Dean takes the Elizabeth Line from time-to-time. I like to think so. I like to think she smiles at Slough and Burnham and West Drayton. Perhaps as the green hedgerows flicker by and the factories turn to houses, bridges, rivers, and trees, she sighs with contentment and gratitude.
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