Wrapping up the Focus Month - February 2025 in Southern France

All alone in a big house would be a first for me. We are minimalists, nomads, colivers, community people. Luckily I am not all alone, though - but I am cooking for only 3 people as I am writing this text - and that is the reason, I can cook and write at the same time. My husband and youngest daughter are in Denmark to celebrate the birthday of my father in law, and I am here with the dogs and my sons. It is quiet. It is nice.

The sun has been shining, and we are enjoying the peace of the countryside. The birds singing, the trees flowering, the walks the silence.

Wrapping up the focus month

The goal of renting a house in the countryside for a month mid-winther, somewhere where we do not know anyone and there is nothing particular to see, was to have a month of focus. A month to mend things, to read books, to work on projects that have been piling up, and to rest. For six and a half years we have been nomadic, and it has been a lot of go-go-go. This February in Finhan, France, we celebrated our seventh anniversary on Valentine's Day. We bought a big red veteran bus to convert it and go travel the world.

The big red bus has its own story. The short version is we converted it and drove it from Copenhagen to Catalonia, where it was parked for good - taking on the role of a tiny house to be a base for our further travels. We bought a small VolksWagen and now and then some plane tickets, later on a Mercedes Sprinter to travel in and just over a year ago we sold the bus. But 2018 valentine's day is still a marker. It was the day we acted on moving from dream to plan.

Since then it has been amazing adventures, full of people and places and new insights and growth and fun. While resting in Finhan, we gave the anniversary a smile and a nod, and rested some more. Now, at the end of it, it is time to wrap up. It is clear it was needed. We all dreamt a lot at night, slept a lot, read a lot of novels, got a lot of work done, went for many walks and did a lot of crafts.

The last few days it has been clear, it is enough now. Now we need adventure, people, art, places, music, languages and more adventure. Barcelona is on the horizon, a perfect contrast to the silence.

Finhan has been sharing with us its finesse. The many shutters with old paint falling off, and newly painted ones in beautiful colors. The birds lifted from the rooftops and from the tower of the church, flapping their many wings, defying gravity and filling us with awe. The stars at night, just after the moment at eleven, when they turn off the streetlamps on the first ding of the second announcement of the hour: The church bell signals twice with a minute in between, a casual add-on to the usual hourly reminder of time passing. We have made it a habit to walk the dogs around that time, and allow ourselves to be caught by the darkness in the silent town every night. Fumbling our way back from the square in front of the church, while the stars shine bright. Mars has been visible, red-ish and bright right over our heads, as we have been walking back in the chill February night, to go hide under our covers with our e-readers.

People play boules on weekends at the same square in the daylight, with a glass of wine or a beer. They are extremely good! Such a fascinating sport to watch, such a uniting thing to do: Everyone can join, and you do not get worse as you get older. On the contrary.

The dog walkers, all of the polite countryside “bonjours”, the little shop on the main road: Carrefour express has provided almost all we needed for our daily life, and we have had all the peace we wanted. Not a sound. No drama. Nothing.

Except for the peace and quiet, the walks, the beauty, the sunshine, the birds singing.

And the city-sign upside down is the riot: Farmers who believe laws are too many and unnecessary share their frustration by neatly unscrewing the city sign, turning it upside down, and put it back. Lots of small towns in France look like this, and it makes me smile. 

Reading books non stop

We have been reading a lot this month. For several years, I have argued, we need a reading month. Even though February was not dedicated to reading, we have all been reading a lot this month. I have personally read eleven novels over the 31 days we spent here. No wonder I did not write all the things I wanted. It has sparked me to write yet another thing on reading and reading literature, a thing about freedom and unschooling and luxury. Hang on for that one, or dive into one of the things I wrote earlier on reading.

My husband and children have all done the same. I don’t have their numbers, but I asume it is in the same general area. It has been great. Just like I think summer is for festivals, and October is for walking, I will from now on believe February is for reading.

The couch to 5k challenge

This is a blogpost about travel life, how it affects us, what it is, how it feels. One challenge as a nomad is to find a way to exercise on the road. The obvious ones are yoga done at home and running. Three and a half year ago I hurt my achilles, which made both options harder to do, and it therefore with great pleasure and a lot of seriousness, I am taking on the challenge to get from not running to running 5K.

This summer I took off my shoes, thanks to the American teenager we had the pleasure of traveling with as he was a barefoot guy. I realised all the barefoot shoes are just a workaround, and that I as a teenager also was always barefoot, even clubbing in Copenhagen in the 90s, I would often not wear shoes. So what happened to convince me I needed barefoot shoes, I thought and took them off. On top of that, the same guy inspired me to do the plank exercise, a time investment in the beginning of 15 seconds a day, and the two together has transformed my base health. I am now totally pain free, and able to start running again. I am doing the challenge with my 16yo daughter, and together we are slowly building strength. Finhan and the peace here has been the perfect framework to get started, and we are through the first 3 weeks. I can highly recommend it. We both feel a bit stupid following the program, it seems like such a little and unambitious goal in the beginning, but the thing is it clearly works, and I am sure, I will be able to run 5K at the end of it, an achievement I have not been able to complete for more than 3 years.

Mending, fixing, learning, doing

Peace and quiet has also been the mental state of serious. Taking responsibility. Do what needs to be done. The spiritual reality testing has been rough, but good. We have been sleeping and dreaming a lot, and we have done a lot of practical work, a lot of clearing, cleaning, fixing.

A big part has been mending stuff. I have learned two new ways to mend handmade socks, and I am quite happy about it. What a game changer youtube is. I have fixed trousers and t-shirts and zippers and bags, even one of the mattresses of the van, shoes, books, bags. It takes a long time to fix stuff, and we have had the talk a lot of times: Does it even make any sense to fix things? My youngest daughter has a pair of jeans that are at this point more fixed than jeans, and while you can buy a new pair of jeans for 20 euros, maybe even cheaper, you have to consider, it is not all about money.

To fix and mend and maybe in the process or for fun decorate things makes sense because it makes sense to take good care of things. Because it is honoring the love that was put into the thing to begin with. Because the process itself can put you in a state of flow, and will spiritually remind you of your responsibility to stay humble to this life, and to the planet we live on, the resources it provides and the luck you have. Mending things is also a way of clearing the energy of your space and will free up energy. Though while you do it, you are going to handle some heavy stuff emerging from the broken thing and the suppression of understanding, all the days you did not do it - so, it can be spiritually confronting.

Feminism revisited

I knit socks. I have often been asked why? It is cheaper and easier and faster to just buy socks. Even if you count the time it takes to make the money, it is cheaper anyway. So why do it?

Well. There is a new episode of SelfDirected coming out next week on craft psychology, so much more on that soon, but obviously knitting makes sense because I enjoy the process, it makes me happy.

It also makes sense to make things with your own hands, make them with love and give them to loved ones to be wrapped and taken care of by handmade, homemade, love-made garments, to keep you not just warm and dry but also happy.
Value is not equivalent to monetary value. The economic value of a thing is not its full value. Very often the financial side of things is the least worry, the smallest part, the least of the reasons to do or not do, own or not own, enjoy or not enjoy.

On Self Directed with Dennis Nørmark, we briefly discuss how women's work in homes has not been recognised as work at all since the first model of economics, as it can not be quantified financially as no-one is being paid for it. Therefore it is not work. A few years ago I had a long and interesting conversation with my oldest daughter about feminism and economy, basically leading to the conclusion: Doing things that can not be quantified on the money-scale is an act of rebellion against the masculine construct of what this life is.

I have written about value so many times, I am almost bored writing this again - yet it can not be said too often: We all need to get our values straight. If we do not know what is important, we can not navigate. And, as Nørmark said in the podcast and in his writings: If you don't take control of your own life, someone else is always ready to do it!

Taking time out to mend a broken zipper, secure loose buttons, fix holes in jeans and bags and meticulously re-creating stitches on worn handmade socks is many things: A clearing of the mind. A respect for the ressource, hence the fortune in personal life and the planet providing for us. An act of rebellion against the false logic of money.

I have one day left, as I am writing this, before moving on to Barcelona new projects: I will mend 3 pairs of my youngest jeans, my own shopping-bag already an upcycle product I received 10 years ago as a present when I was declared cancer-free, my oldest sons jeans and my own computer bag. I will do it all today potentially, listening to podcasts with my sons, who will be doing their crafts. It will make a lot of sense.

On the horizon is Barcelona. We are moving on Wednesday. In Barcelona there will be music classes and a gym, art museums, our many friends there and new ones to make, drawing class, street musicians, the vibe of citylife. We are very much looking forward to it. Springtime, sunshine, evening walks, people, places, beach.