A warm welcome and thank you for coming back for more.
It is after all your precious time that you decide to spend with me and thus, it is a great honour to share with you insights, epiphanies, monumental mindset shifts.
I’ll keep it light though :)
It has also been a day of pure lightness and joy. No stress, no pressure, no need do’s or need be’s. We spent our night on a parking space in the Grillefjord. I believe it actually was the very first time since we started our journey that we had a spot all to ourselves, no other cars and no traffic rattling by. The rain ceased as soon as we rolled off board and so we were able to even set up camp without getting soaked. But that is enough from yesterday as you have given the first of the Norway Chronicles series your attention, you may have guessed that the mindset during writing was indeed that of being totally at ease.
Ease continued upon waking up. Strong wind, no rain. The perfect conditions for a shower, some haircare, a hygiene and beauty routine that made me feel like another being altogether. Highly motivated without a direction or objective.
The best ingredients for a successful day.
Speaking of success - that was the first question I pondered upon our hike up the mountain Barden. The trailhead went up to 659 metres above sea level and the views were stunning. While walking, at times stumbling up, at times sliding down, I was thinking about success. Seeing as I am now nursing my piggy bank with the utmost dedication, meaning that I gifted her with a weight watchers membership, meaning that I will slim her out until there is nothing left. As murderous as that sounds, it brings to mind this question of what success looks like. Is it figures on the bank statement? If so, was I crazy for feeling so gloriously alive, and succesful?
I was conditioned to think it was a certain thing, or better a lot of multiple very expensive things and best case scenario specific branded things. Starting from a Louis Vuitton bag right to the infinite possibilities of spending your money. A yacht in Monaco or something similar comes to mind. Coming from that, I was said to paint pictures of myself in a New York condo overlooking Central Park as a multi million dollar lawyer. But with an old money look of course. Unfortunately during my teenage years I got off track. Now don't panic, I told you yesterday I kept my rebelhood on a strict leisure time leash. So I adhered to expectations and finished High School, entered college adn found out that something about this whole plan for my life feels like a leotard that is too tight, itchy and out of fashion. Four different directions of studies later I finished a diploma in art and fabric design. Wow, I know! Still a good girl! Mission accomplished, I have earned a diploma. What I learned receiving my diploma was that I am no good, neither at arts nor at design. Or so my grades and teachers told me. Never worked in that area afterwards anyway. Instead I took my first ticket to another country, worked in a fashion boutique to make ends meet and switched after my first burnout into an office job. Was again a good girl and did my diploma for that as well. Though then my second burnout hit. Anyway. Yaddiyaddiya.
Life stuff.
What I termed success as a child, as a teen, as a twen and now in my 30’s was homogenous. It changed and morphed according to the clique I was in, the peers I had, the state of the world around me. It was essentially just a reflection of my environment until I started to get to know myself that is.
Once I acquired the knowledge that I have actually a voice, a place on this Earth and am therefore able to form my own opinions, regardless if those around me approve of them or not, I was unstoppable and formed a lot of very loud and very dumb opinions on things I do not understand. What do we understand anyway? How can we know what we don't know? And don't we know that we do know so little indeed? Isn't knowledge only what we ourselves experience?
I digress.
Up there, on that mountain, I asked myself the question if success as a word is meaningless because only the people that explain their individual view on success give it meaning. Sometimes it may even be that we take on whatever others deemed successful without ever questioning how we would define it. Maybe. I guess, as so often in life it comes down to the simple fact that albeit that we all make up a whole, we are still individual fragments of that whole. So it seems that everything is a question of individual perceptions. As is success.
The Bard - I can call him that, we were mere acquaintances when I started that hike but now we are buddies - did not give me any answer to that. I belive dhe was quite neutral about it, maybe even disinterested in this human stuff we give so much weight to. Doing my Yoga session as a gratitude practice to all the beings, entities, energies, inhabitants, protectors and guards of this beautiful corner of the world, especially the Bard, the feeling of ultimate success flooded me anyway.
My thoughts while success flooded my system were quite simple:
Look at this view!
Look at this corner of the world that you are observing right now!
Look at this!
Look!
And again, when I was on the ferry from Botnhamn to Brensholmen, within all these people, all these personal, intimate stories, I was drawn to the question again: How much money do they have or make? Is it important to them? How do they finance their travels? How do they cope with their lives? Are they happy? How do they define happiness? Would they say, if asked right now, that they feel successful? How would each of them define success?
How do you define success?
At some point I started intentionally letting my questions and thoughts fly by and concentrate on the journey, the landscape passing by, the turquoise waters, the birds flying around, the water gurgling underneath the ferry, the amber coloured smoke coming out of the ship’s pipes, the different languages as murmurs in the background, the clouds and mountains shaping Druids, fantastical animals, the high peeks blurred in the distance by a veil of heavy rain, the salty smell in the air.
I am writing this and a smile cannot be suppressed. If success is a number on a bank account then I am delusional in thinking I am successful. If success is a feeling within, that the choices we make are in alignment with the head, heart and soul - then I am the most successful I have ever been.
This country is growing on me.
The farther North I get, the more I feel like I could start a life here.
We’ll see.
For that I definitely need to take my piggy bank off weight watchers and give her a lot of extra chunk to chew on.
Or maybe not.
Who knows, stranger things have happened.
Stay good, stay kind, stay light!
All the very best from my heart to yours, my beloved souls
Nadine
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