What would a baobab say?

Writing from Lanzarote – an island which in many ways triggered this whole website… And a place which transforms me once again. It started off quite ordinarily; however, due to some unexpected (and unexplained) last minute changes in flights, my daughter Kristyna and I landed on this Canary island two hours ahead of schedule. One might think that this represents good fortune; but before jumping to conclusions… just wait a sec:

There comes a time in life when you must stop reading other peoples books and start writing your own.

Albert Einstein

Even though we landed ahead of schedule, our luggage had no such luck; our suitcases and the ones of a young pair from Austria were claimed lost… In an attempt to calm down the Austrian lady who was shouting at the airport personnel and freaking out about her absent bikini I tried to lighten the moment up a bit. I heard myself saying: “We could go skinny dipping after dusk. Have you ever tried that? I think I always wanted to do that… This is our unique chance to try something different!” She gave me a razor sharp look and I stopped. Maybe she simply enjoys being angry… But it did the trick with Kristyna and this got us both into the right attitude. We realized how funny the situation actually was. Many people spend their vacation in distant places, but only a few do so with just a handbag :)

Now listen; here comes my aha-moment… and it might not be what you expect. The two days we spent without any luggage have actually been our best days in the past few months! And I’d bet I haven’t had so much fun in years… Not only did we enjoy skinny dipping in the ocean (you thought I was just kidding?!) but we actually had fun with everything else that came. We laughed a lot. We sang. We danced. We talked. We played like kids. We made new friendships. We spoke Spanish. We cooked and ate more mindfully. At night we watched the stars. In the mornings we enjoyed listening to the birds and feeding them with bread. Simply put: We slowed down. Life got more intense and creative. And finally we got energized and more appreciative of all its goodness pouring at us from everywhere.

We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.

Joseph Campbell

When all our devices ran out of battery life didn’t seem to bother And we both soon arrived at a joint conclusion – life can get simple and the simplicity doesn’t take anything away. On the contrary, it offers high returns; each moment seems to get richer, more tasty, joyful and always fresh. When we go simple there is no need to spend time making choices about trivial matters such as clothes or make-up. One gets into a state of flow. And in its beingness there is always just one thing to do. To focus on just that thing is easy and it feels natural. And life suddenly becomes simply beautiful.

This experience got me wondering as to how we could keep such attitude every day? In a way each moment is fresh and we start from ground zero, almost as though we are a new person each morning. Each day we start drawing another canvas. How can we make it more fun, present, creative, loving and meaningful? Instead of the constant planning, risk mitigation and judgement is it possible to just focus on “putting one foot in front of the other” and let life unfold in ways which transcend what we could have imagined? Nothing has a built-in meaning. We assign meaning to situations. And we can change that so that loosing luggage (job, possesions, you name it) doesn’t mean a bad thing. Instead, it might be a great opportunity to set ourselves free and experiment with something new!

I heard that positive perceptions register in 20 secs, while negative do in less than a sec. That’s why it’s good to take the time to register the moments of joy, love and excitement in our life. And let them last longer to keep the momentum. What if nothing is a problem? Can I trust life with all its twists and turns, ups and downs, peaks and caves? Can I find something to be happy about? Be ok with where I am and know everything is on its way? If 4 out of 5 things in my life are good, do I focus on the 4 which are good or is my focus on the one which is bad? If 1 of 5 is good am I able to focus on the one?

People accumulate stuff believing that the things are serving them. My experience is quite the opposite. We serve the stuff. And the more stuff we have the more time and energy we spend on it. We spend time earning money to buy things. Then we spend even more money to maintain and transport it to places. And then we spend energy worrying about loosing it. To reduce our worries we buy insurance for our stuff. I could go on, but you got the point – we serve stuff with our precious time and energy. In the end there is less left for living.

Upon reflection and being two days without “our stuff” we couldn’t even recall all the items we packed! It seemed we really missed just a few – our swimming suits, toothbrushes, diaries… The first evening we walked the surroundings of our appartment and found a beautiful old baobab tree. We had a thought: what would it say in this situation? We agreed it might as well just laughed..!

On the third day of our vacation, after our luggage has been found and delivered, there we are – climbing up the same baobab tree under the midnight shadow. While sitting on its branches in a complete silence astonished by its serenity we recall the first night’s question and ask the tree: if you could speak what would you say? To my utmost wonder I sense it reply: Just listen to what each moment has to tell you. Life is simple; it always has been and ever will be.

Thanks for the inspiration to simplify and get childly joyful and creative again; despite having all the stuff available. Listening to the moment that night we went on to play giant chess in the resort’s garden accompanied only by the moon and starlight. Life can be very simple. And most of our experiences don’t have a default meaning. When we say good or bad we cutt off the part which we defined as negative. But that’s just our perspective. From the bigger picture – say galaxy (or baobab) there is no negative. Everything’s an integral part of the universal dance and we have no idea of its full complexity. Or simplicity for that matter ;)

I believe as human beings we are capable of changing our lens to redefine anything we wish.

After all, the most precious things in life aren’t something we can buy:

Love. Health. Laughter. Beauty. Surprise. Flow. Wisdom. Serenity.

These can only be allowed, invited, made space for and fully experienced.
And from there the magic takes over. And life gets amazingly simple.