Savoring the Moment

My favorite Czech writer Milan Kundera, an expert in capturing and analyzing moments, once wrote something like this: When leaving a place you hated you can’t leave fast enough but when leaving a place you loved you take your time, go slow, enjoy the exit as much as the place itself. My last month has been filled with moments of slow exists.

I am in a nirvana, not the band, a liberation of sort. At the same time I see that its only the beginning. I can still turn back. I am only starting the understand this life. If you read the previous posts you know I am not turning back. This is the life I wanted to experience. So what is it like?

Let me start with the hard parts first. Mosquitoes, luckily only in the morning and evening hours. Heat, during the day, without AC, its very draining. A lot of banging your head against various parts of the boat, yes, talking literally here. Hard bed to sleep on. Constant moving, not only because of the water but frequent travel from one place to another. Hunt to find a calm spot where I can stay the night, preferably not in a marina.

Then there are the great parts. The turquoise color of the clear sea around you. The turtle that leisurely swims by. Islands and mainlands shaped by millions of years. People and structures old and new and anywhere in between, all unique, all the time. Explorations and discoveries on land and sea. Afternoon naps. Long dinners with unique discussions. Freedom, yet with the option to be completely in middle of all that is happening thousands of miles away thanks to we so take for granted now, the internet.

Lastly, the non tangible. This is probably the biggest change from my life 1.0. About a year and half ago I experienced ‘a moment’. I smoked a joint and got an urge to get a mint mocha from Urth Caffe and read a book. So there i was, sipping my coffee and enjoying a story when I started to be pulled out and into smells, sights and sounds of the busy place around me. It was a great moment. I was part of the place. I am discovering a lot of moments like that now. When I give myself time to wonder, the places pull me in. They open up, welcome me, caress me, and let me really feel, understand, and be part of them. Yet, I don’t need to remain a part of them. At any moment I am free to get up and go as I choose.

And this is what is crazy. As members of a society that created its rules around ownership and monetization. The need to work and spend pulls us away from these moments of tranquility and belonging. That, or more like a lack of that is where the feeling of emptiness comes from. By allowing to calm down, sit down or wonder. By realizing that we were born with everything we need, one discovers something amazing; The Moment.