Barb Stuhlemmer/Posted on March 16, 2026

Life Learning from Nonna on the Stairs

I was looking out of my B&B window and I saw an elderly woman, with a bag that looked a little on the heavy side, climbing some stairs. I pointed her out to my husband and he said, “wow, look at her go.” Then, she stopped, put down the bag, and both of us said, “Oh, is she OK?” Maybe she is on the phone. Maybe she is going to grab something out of her bag. Does she need help? My hubby thought maybe he should go down and out to the steps to help her.

Then the woman leaned on the railing and looked around. She seemed calm and content. We looked around and admired the view too. A minute later, she picked up the bag and continued. A calm, measured pace.

What I didn’t tell you was this was the view from our room in Italy. The front door of the B&B we were in was 125 steps up from the road (about 9 flights). We had already walked up this staircase carrying our luggage. By the time we got to the door we were both out-of-breath and there was a lot of cussing going on.

The woman was not coming to our B&B, she was heading farther up the path to her home (we assumed). She had another 9 flights of stairs to go, or more. What we learned that day was, not everything is a race. She took regular stops, to ‘live the climb’, not just get through it. From our North American perspective, this seemed lazy. Get to your destination. Don’t doddle. You’ve got things to do. But, when we go through life without actually experiencing it, we miss living the purpose of our actions. Not everything is a task that must be completed this moment. Not every moment needs to be filled with your next step.

In business this translates to finding the moments where you can stop and enjoy the work you do. Appreciate your circumstances. Even when things are not going well, paying attention to what is going well, helps our minds manage the path forward with more ease, in a more calm, measured pace.

Don’t just do the things to get through it:

Make sure you are living the life, enjoying the view,

so you are NOT just climbing stairs.

NOTE: The image is the view from our B&B in Italy, 9 stories up from the road.