Perceptions of time...

I watched a video a few days ago and I got totally blown-away. First of all the creativity, the imagination that allowed someone to come up with such a simple concept. Second, at the end, an amount of thoughts came to my mind and today I can't look at stones with the same way I used to!

First watch it yourself, it's the German animation video "Das Rad" (The Wheel), from 2002. It's only 8 minutes long:

What is my perspective of time? Is it real? What is time afterall? When we think a fly has a lifespan of 24-48 hours, who does't think "what a stupid short life!". How stupid short life is OURS, compared to our brothers from the movie... For sure short, too short to think it's important at all, but not stupid, to think it's not relevant. It's all we have!

Today as I get closer to my thirties, I realize that instead of thinking of time I rather think of timing, instead of hours, moments, instead of days, experiences... and stop worrying too much with the moss in my head! :P

CARPE DIEM :D

My Nature Quest & John Milton

I've been a couple of weeks ago in a natural reserve area called Vålådalen, in the middle/north of Sweden. It's a sacred place which still belongs to the Sami People (indigenous people from Northern Europe), and it was the scenario and teacher for an amazing 6-days "Nature Quest" with John Milton and Göran Gennvi. John is a shaman, a wise man, a brujo, according to the old indigenous traditions from Mexico, North America and many parts of the world. He is best known as the guru and coach of highly influential business thinkers such as Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski and Otto Scharmer. The whole chapter "Seeing with the Heart" in their book Presence is dedicated to John's "Sacred Passages".

We all belong to nature and we are all interconnected, but since we (civilized humans) decided to live in cities having individualized lives, we "forgot" our connection - represented by our intuition, presence and mindfulness. Such journeys remind us and helps us to reconnect - basic need for a deeper understanding of sustainability and (perhaps) a key way to find new solutions for our current global problems.

This week was organized by Martin Cadée, Director from the Kaospilot Netherlands, who has been himself last year in the desert of Utah on a Sacred Passage. We were a group of 15 Kaospilots from the schools in Aarhus, Stockholm and Rotterdam, plus a couple of business people.

We camped by a beautiful lake, with view of the snow in the mountains (even in the summer), and the company of a LOT of mosquitoes. We had one day of lectures and conversations with John Milton by the fireplace, inside a little tepee, seated on raindeers' fur, before we head up the mountain. We spent 3 days solo, without any books to read, any journals to write, any MP3s to listen, any mobile or persons to talk to, any watch to check time, and any food to eat (except a special fasting tea made with maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lime juice, on water). The idea was to get rid of all sorts of distractions, and without being able to "DO" anything, allow your self to "BE", by meditations, Tai Chi and Qi Gong practices, and contemplation. At the end of the three days, the return in silence, a slowly and profound sharing of the experiences and a sense of joyfulness.

In the last morning we were together, we also discussed on how to take this practices further, perhaps integrating it into the Kaospilot curriculum, and bringing more young (urban) people on such journeys.

Personally, I felt extremely positive after this experience. Clarity. I had read several books from Carlos Castañeda when I was 17 and by that time never had support from others, or any "masters" around to guide me. It is a sort of spiritual quest, but more than that, it means self-knowledge, awareness raising, and the ability to stay focused and attentive. A warrior's skill. I'm now looking into future opportunities to work and explore more this field, both as projects for my final school year and as for my own personal development.

Summer plans?

I came back from China in the end of April and after spending 2 weeks in Amsterdam working for GRI and seeing some old friends, I arrived in Aarhus focused in finishing the semester and figuring out my summer plans... my original plans of staying in Aarhus working on a cool marketing project got canceled and I got a bit confused in the middle of a thousand ideas and no concrete decisions. Anxiety and impatience are not good companions for those moments, I must confess.

Cutting the crap (I guess no one wants to read about my inner conversations with myself over the last month), some good things came out and some more traveling is taking place!!

I'm taking part in a summer leadership/meditation retreat facilitated by John Milton (www.sacredpassage.com) in the mountains in Sweden, camping for one week, spending 3 days on a solo-trip where the sun never sets! I'm really looking forward for this experience and to prepare myself this this journey I decided to hitchhike all the way from Aarhus to Valadalen Natural Reserve, near Aare, a 1,500km road trip! I will have the company of my beautiful Danish friend Louise so I think we won't have problems to get rides! ;-)

After Sweden, I'll be in Copenhagen for a couple of days before heading to Brazil, where I will work on a project for the 2 months (from mid-July until early September). I'll be based in Sao Paulo and I'm looking forward to meet old friends, meet new people and start planning some cool future projects!! I'll be at the AIESEC Alumni Congress, for sure!!!! (I didn't imagine that happening...)


I'll blog more on the hitchhiking trip when possible, and share some thoughts from the camping retreat...

Hiking mountains in China...

I love Nature. In special mountains. Irony or not, I've lived for the last 2.5 years in Netherlands and Denmark... can you get more flat than that?? ;-)

As I'm in China, I had to explore life outside those 15 million cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Last week I visited Tai Shan, considered one of the best National Parks in China and one of the 5 holy mountains for Taoists and Buddhists. It's easily accessible by train, between Beijing and Shanghai.

I knew that this mountain, as many others, used to be routes for pilgrims for over 3,000 years, and the stair-steps reach all the way to the top. I was also expecting to find "some" visitors, although late March is still low season and a Friday is still working day...

What I found most surprising was the amount of Chinese visitors. The place was full of locals visiting and hiking the mountain. I thought I would be sort of alone and able to enjoy some silence. Ahah! Welcome to National Parks in China.. or should I say "Amusement Parks"? People seemed to enjoy the place almost as much as people enjoy Disneyland, shouting everywhere, gift-shops and people selling all kind of crap literally every 300 meters all the way to the top. Once you reach the summit, you find a little village full of restaurants, more shops, some hotels, cable car and buses to take you down. I must say it was a bit frustrating.

Even though, a little bit of exploration allowed me to find a little path where no tourists found interesting, and I found myself completely alone in the other side of the mountain (which also meant no sounds from humans at all). It was a long 1-hour walk around and back to the croud. I felt satisfied in my own pilgrimage.

I don't want to sound negative or complaining about the tourists, it's just a different perspective on being around Nature. For example, the whole path was surrounded by a dozen temples, where travelers would leave locks, money, candles and incenses for their gods. These locations were absolutely silent, calm, and peaceful, a perfect short stop while walking the way up. I loved it! That also makes me think about what people respect and why...

I met only 1 laowai (foreigner) during the whole day. Ed is from UK and he joined me on the way down, where we searched for some adventure, through the West Route. Basically no path indication, among the trees and crossing small roads, no people there, except a few local farmers...

In the end, my legs were completely destroyed, they felt like jelly... and I reeeeally enjoy the hard-sleeper on the way back to Shanghai!