Sharing on Sundays used to be a great habit. Then my father died, and I tried to continue, but then Corona hit, and now I have loads of half-finished texts and nothing new on the blog. This Sunday I set the intention of finishing a small text, and re-install the habit.
Af Cecilie Felumb Conrad | August 23, 2020
This week, week 34, August 2020 we have been road tripping to a medium island in Denmark (that is a very small island as the whole of Denmark is very small) with friends. When we live in Denmark, we always end up spending sooooo much time with the same family as the sharing of time and space just works so very well for both parties. We all love each other, even the dogs are BFF.
Week 34 was week 3 in Denmark, and finally, we were ready to go on a joined adventure. They have a 6,5-meter camping car, and we travel in the VW so traveling together is an option we have enjoyed before and really appreciate it.
All of Monday was packing and organizing and shopping for the trip, but we did end the day sharing a meal at a harbor with a great view for the sunset and the bridge connecting the island ‘Langeland’ via two more islands to one of the main islands, and via that to mainland Europe. Denmark is full of islands. There are 406 islands, of which about 80 are inhabited. How many are connected by bridges, I am not sure. Less than half would be my educated guess.
We went to this particular island because of a huge organic state-owned estate, my friend Ina wanted to see, but as the universe always gives us what we need, it happened to be the island my father-line ancestors come from. They were rich and successful tradesmen and women in the 17 and 18 hundreds, and 3 of the big family houses still exist and are beautifully renovated.
It was deep in many ways to walk this island, just feeling the connection to the big picture of time and history.
As I know we are all connected, and our stories never end, it was revealing and also a great relief to me, to walk this island, touch these houses, look out over this harbor, embrace the stories of the family, and share them with my husband and children.
At the same time, it was my favorite thing: Exploring the world with my husband and children, with a bonus of friends – the sun was shining, the light was beautiful, the sunsets and fallings stars jaw-dropping, the ocean so blue and the whole adventure amazing. We had only four days before we had to be back close to the capital. But it was very much enough.
We explored the nature of the island, the southern tip being a core point for traveling birds, as the can reach mainland Europe with a minimum of flying over the ocean, if they go this way, with semi-wild horses, beautiful slope to the beach, shores of complex nature with semi lake and flowers and you name it.
We saw the estate and all of the initiative there to farm in alternative ways, the nature-museum/laboratory, and the historical museum in the buildings about the life for owners as well as for employees in the past 300 years. We came out feeling very rich, and very fortunate.
Finally, we saw the main city of the island, is a very very small city, beautiful and silent – containing the history of a branch of my family tree and the story of island life in Denmark, we went to see the museum and learned, there had been people living on this island for more than 4000 years, which is a long time in my opinion, and the museum had the most extreme amount of stone tools I have ever seen in one place. It also had a very interesting story about prisoners of war at the end of world war 2, how they were moved more or less in panic, and a huge amount of them stranded in Langeland, german prisoners from Russia and France. Why did I not know this before? The story is tragic and beautiful.
Very interesting. Very much so. The world is like that. Full of wonders, full of things we never knew. Full of new insights.
Friday back at our friend’s farm, we were lucky enough to have guests from Sweden. This family we met in Grenada last year at the world school summit. They currently live in Prague as homeschooling is illegal in Sweden, and are digital nomads like us – but with base in Prague. They travel a lot, and we are so like-minded, we wanted the day to never end. What a blessing to have such wonderful people in our circles, to have friends who will let us live with them for weeks and even invite guests to their home.
I would say we did nothing on Saturday and Sunday, but of course, it would be a lie. We do something all of the time. We did take it a bit easier, though. Reading books, organizing, making plans, working, washing our clothes, having conversations, playing board games. On Sunday we will go out to let the boys visit their sister, and Silke and I go for a girly walk in the Capital. Rarely we do things separated, but sometimes we do it and it is always amazing. To just have a bit of special-time.
On the more thinking side of things, we have been reflecting on, what we are doing with the traveling, as Denmark is not much of an adventure for us all in all, where we will go next and why. We have been again confronted with the fact, we can not really plan anything because of COVID and because of different medical situations that need attention.
We have to cope with just not planning too much.
Oh yes, and because the car needs to go to the mechanic for a while.
We need – again – to learn to stay in the present moment and just be, embrace, enjoy, accept. It is such a beautiful lesson to learn. Even when we learn it a hundred times.
We have also been discussing the future, how we can organize the coming five years. Planning on a new van, bigger than the VW but smaller than the bus. Planning on a tiny house in our home country, and on helping our oldest to buy a house. Lots of things going on. And on top of it we – especially I – are coping with the fact, my parents died and the legal situation is ongoing and horrible. How do I just let go, how do I stay within the love, within my own truth while the storm is raging and I at the same time feel run over, exhausted, beaten half-dead, misunderstood and downright sick and tired of it. It is more confronting, this whole thing when we are in Denmark. Something to do with the proximity, I think, of where it all happens.
Letting go. Letting go. Breathing. Staying within my own Truth. This is the key. The lesson. The light, the truth, and the way. It is Jesus, as simple as that.
Thank you for reading the blog. I write to share our experiences and perspective, and would love to hear yours. Please comment in whatever way feels right to you: Facebook-comment, personal e-mail, text-message, whatever you like. It brings a lot of joy in the bus, when we hear from readers. Thank you and may the sun shine on your path.
With love
Travelblog about life and death, gratefulness and places – 2020 weeks...