A place I could call my own
After many twists, tumbles and turns I found that beach. Twice.
Setting out once, to find my beach, my paradise and safe haven; a place I could call my own and passionately be myself in to my fullest expression and with full freedom was an expedition and a challenge worthy of remembrance.
Ever since watching: “Villervalle i Söderhavet” as a kid and “The Beach” as I got older, and also talking about travelling with friends and similar, I have had a longing for adventures and the sunny climates and paradisic sceneries of beaches. More than this I longed to live with more passion and social creativity. And so I set out some time around 2007. And travelled and adventured until about 2012.
Two times have I truly found a beach, and a place where I could fully be myself and live with passion.
I once walked into the bar street of Rhodes and trough a bar and beach bar into the back; where the bright blue waves of the Mediterranean Sea were crashing in just before me, and tanned smiling people – new friends and holiday hobby colleagues – emerged from the glittering waters to greet me and a friend welcome. I could finally live passionately, without any unfair circumstances or the boundaries of a small town with fixed social hierarchies.
The second time was when I walked into Phuket with nothing but a bag and € 20 on my pocket. After being shown around at the beachside nightclub with restaurant where they later recorded Håkans Bar (5), I walked alone into the ocean, with the wind blowing in refreshingly and the waves crashing and roaring all around me. The panoramic view of the bay and Andaman horizon was magnificent and I felt, even though it was a popular tourist beach, as if I had stepped into one of natures most beautiful of natural paradises. I had made it. And with the teams I participated in and friends and acquaintances I met, I could finally freely be myself, act out and be fully socially creative and flirtatious.
Life on holiday destinations is different; more indulgent, free and socially creative.
Life was a relentless cherishment of the day, and night; as we owned the beaches and streets and as we hosted parties and had discounts and VIP-cards everywhere at night, and friends would shake our hands wherever we would go.
Some people are as if they where the offspring of the sun, as if they could have been born in the sea and washed up on beaches into life and their families .
Sooner or later in our lives we feel our calling and our hearts beats with wanderlust.
The sun and beach calls us out.
It’s time to find our beaches and ourselves.
As Epictetus once put it, which I didn’t discover until just recently, but that still resonates: “If your choices are beautiful, so too, shall you be”.
Or as I would say it back in those days:
“Any place is near and possible.
-Live so that you wake up longing for the day,
and fall asleep with gratitude.”
What you find out about yourself when you find a beach stays with you. And with self-loyalty and a summery mind you blossom trough the day, floating on summer breezes, committed to a relentless pursuit of what is truly yours. Dedicated to mastery, not just in what you do, but also in who you are.
Even though life wasn’t always perfect, and some things could have been done better and more appropriate, and I didn’t always have what I needed, I still treasure those days and experiences, those moments on beaches, bar streets, restaurants and rooftop pool bars with jacuzzis. Those moments of feeling ridiculously fortunate and perfect in time, fully aligned with true purpose, as life could and should be like. Our footprints in the sand of the beaches might have been swept away by winds and waves by now, but they have always been there, written in the sand like a poem about the beauty life can really hold. The beauty you can find and be. The beauty just a couple of choices away.
Integrity is like a closed fist. Kept closed by the muscles in the arm and hand. A good life and asset is just that. Clarity is essential as well in order to know what to hold on to. When the world and others attempts to illude and convince you to open it and loose your integrity you keep it closed. That is why it is my recommendation, that before you embark on adventures and wild pursuits, be sure to build an asset and a good economy, be sure of who to be, and preferably have travel insurance. Be careful. Stay safe!
Facing the future, I do so with a summery mind, confidence and clarity. I take steps, leaving footprints in the sand of beaches, even in the cities. I take steps and I climb mountains. I have figured myself and life out, and with that insight and clarity I set the course and I move upwards.
Between stimulus and reaction there is a sacred space that we call freedom. The mysterious, or some would say divine, ability to be something unexplainable above physics. This is how we humanly experience it, this is how it is. We have free will. We can choose.
We are free to walk away from everything we want to leave and do something and be something completely different.
Because of this and more than this, we can give ourselves value, find clarity, improve and constructively make ourselves capable of being who we truly want to be and doing what we truly want to do. We can do almost anything if we set our minds to it and have solid reasons. We can be strategic and proactive with insight. We can study. We can learn. We can improve. We can acquire. We can practice. We can be constructive. We can act. We can work. We can pursue. We can decide. We can be.
The beach is out there.
Release yourself!
When life tells you to go; go!
