“I could sit like this forever…”

Some weekends ago we went to Cabo Polonio National Park. Part of the park is a town that has decided to live with little/no outside power sources. They use solar power where they need energy but for the most part it just isn’t used. It was a way of living that feels foreign. In Cabo Polonio I felt as if the stress and disheartening world issues didn’t exist. I wondered if the people who lived there felt that too. I wrote in my journal:

“When I think about my life bustling around and always thinking about systems + current events + the wicked problems of the world, I completely lose my ability to ‘be.’ There’s is an art to just sitting. I told a few friends earlier that I couldn’t be here [in Cabo Polonio] for more than a week because I would get bored…but why?”

Here I sat in one of the most beautiful places and one of my thoughts was that I couldn’t sit for so long. Why wouldn’t I say “wow I could sit like this forever”? My default take on the world is fast and always busy. But in this place that was intentionally left as a way to slow down and be removed from the rush of the rest of the world, it felt like an insult to say I couldn’t sit.

I continued…

“… in this gem of a town off the coast of Uruguay, planted in the middle of a national park, we have the opportunity to disconnect from all those things which cause stress. There is not a need for more, more, more. In fact, the value of this place diminishes when you add more. We lose sight of the really valuable things + even ruin them if we keep trying to add ‘stuff’”

I will let photos share the commentary on this part.

We saw rocks covered in sea lions, climbed to the top of a lighthouse where it felt like we could have flown away in the wind, sat on the beach for hours, and in the evening, bundled up even more to watch the sunset and the stars.

“It was so cold b/c of the wind. The sky was incredible to watch change. My favorite sunsets are those that look like someone painted the sky + left distinct brush strokes. This one look like we were watching God paint. Every moment the sky added a star or changed the arrangement of the clouds. A memorable sunset for sure.”

“We wondered back to the hostel around 11 and sat around the campfire just chatting. The stars were like I had never seen. We could clearly pick out the Milky Way + constellations (it was almost disorienting to try and look at the expanse of sky before us) + the moon was so bright it felt like a flashlight. I’d never seen it so bright.”

I want to be as open as possible in these posts. Especially, because I think we are obsessed with just sharing our thoughts and then assuming our minds and lifestyles are changed forever with one *ah-ha* moment of realization. Bleh. Ick. That’s not real.

The reality is that I will likely continue to have a mindset of urgency and a need to be productive for the rest of my life. It is just a part of who I am. However, we can find value in these lessons (especially when we write them down) from the reminders of things that make our lives better. In 5 years I will be able to sit down, read this journal entry, and remind myself to empty my brain and be calm. Remind myself, there was a moment when I was still and content and could have just sat there. Forever.