11 Nov BALNEÁRIO CAMBORIÚ – 09 NOVEMBER 2017 – TRAVEL DIARY
It’s been raining for some weeks and stopped only a few times. The mornings are usually overcast. I like them this way. Today we’ve been on the beach in the morning. We are camped only 100m away from the beach and in the evening all you can hear are the waves and the crickets.
This place where we are right now is a very green place. Green mountains that end in the ocean. I spent the beginning of my youth through Greece and I was in love with those places. I have lots of memories from Santorini, Corfu or Crete, of white and blue and turquoise water.
Brazil is a place to be loved deeply, to be discovered intimately. So here I am walking on the empty beach, thoughts pop up and, as Descartes said “I think, therefore I exist!”, I wonder why I feel that I have to do what I set my mind to do.
I mean I want to have this online travel journal, posting every day a thought or something that happened and while I like what I do, I don’t understand why I feel the pressure to write yesterday’s log even if I am not in the mood to.
How about this?
I walked a little quicker back to the car where kids are probably up already. The sun is unbelievably coming out of the clouds so the day announces itself as a dolce far niente on the Orange trees beach where jungle meets the ocean and where the sand emerges from between the rocks like an oasis.
I inform everybody of the discovery of the day, that is that today we do nothing. We just lay on the beach. So we gather towels and folding chairs and we invade the beach like the Turks invaded Bucharest around year 1500. Excited by the virgin place, I put my chair in the shadow of a tree and I start absorbing the images around me while our kids play in the water.
Well, not completely as it never does, that is why I don’t believe in meditation as a method to stop your mind. This was what we did for some hours, we observed… observation is an action of nothing. When the mind is in observation mode, it stops!
When the mind observes without judging, it is like a floating seagull…
As my mind was floating like the waves in front of me, I wake up surrounded by hundreds of people, mostly kids and teenagers. Together with street vendors selling clothes, swimming suits, electronics, ice-cream, chilled coconuts, a carnival-like chaos. I freeze on my chair like the squirrel in Ice Age. A vendor leaves its merchandise a few steps away from me and leaves.
And here I was sitting wearing my sunglasses, on a chair, with an exhibition of hats in front of me. People come, try the hats on, look at me asking for something and I say smiling “ não falo português” meaning that I don’t speak Portuguese, but that doesn’t seem to mean much to them.
Amused by this situation, but shaken from the contemplative meditation I was in, I tell my children: I am gone writing, this beach no longer is what it used to be! 🙂
***
Ploua de cateva saptamani, cu intreruperi. Diminetile sunt de obicei mohorate. Mie-mi plac. Astazi am fost pe plaja de dimineata. Suntem campati la numai 100 de metri de plaja, seara poti auzi valurile si greierii si atat!
Este foarte verde in zona in care suntem. Munti verzi ce se opresc in ocean. Mi-am petrecut inceputurile tineretii prin Grecia, am fost indragostit de acele locuri! Inca mi-au ramas memoriile de prin Santorini, Corfu sau Creta, de albastru cu alb si apa turcoaz.Brazilia e de iubit profund, de descoperit in intimitate. Asa ca iata-ma plimbandu-ma pe plaja pustie, gandurile dau navala si precum Descartes care cu o evrica a enuntat “Gandesc, deci exist!”, eu ma intrebam de ce ma simt obligat sa fac ceea ce mi-am propus sa fac! Adica cum eu mi-am propus sa tin un jurnal de calatorie online, postand in fiecare zi un gand sau o intamplare, ei bine cu toate ca-mi place ceea ce fac nu inteleg de ce ma stresez eu acum ca am de scris postul de ieri si nu am chef! Cum vine treaba asta?
Am luat-o la pas repede inspre masina unde probabil copiii s-au si trezit. Soarele ca prin minune a inceput sa-si arate fata de dupa norii albi, asa ca ziua anunta un “dolce far niente” pe plaja Portocalilor, unde jungla se intalneste cu oceanul si unde plaja se prelinge printre stanci ca o oaza de nisip. Anunt vesel descoperirea zilei, nu mai facem nimic astazi, astazi stam! Stam de tot, pe plaja. Asa ca inarmati pana-n dinti cu prosoape si scaune pliante, dam navala pe plaja ca turciii prin Bucuresti pe la 1500!
Fericit de virginitatea locului, ma asez pe scaunul pliant la umbra unui copac si incep sa ma umplu de peisajul din jur timp in care copiii se zbenguiesc prin apa fara pauza. Asta am facut cateva ore, am observat….. Observatia este o actiune a nimicului! Mintea cand observa (de obicei sau asa ar fi frumos sa faca) se opreste!
Bine, nu se opreste, pentru ca mintea nu se opreste niciodata de aceea nu cred in meditatie ca si cale in a-ti opri mintea!
Cand mintea observa, fara sa judece, este ca un pescarus plutind…Cum pluteam cu mintea pe valurile din fata-mi, ma trezesc inconjurat de sute de persoane, copii in majoritate, adolescenti. O data cu ei si vanzatori ambulanti cu haine, costume de baie , electronice, inghetata, nuci de cocos la rece, o harmalaie de carnaval. Raman blocat pe scaunul meu pliant ca veverita aia din Ice Age. Un vanzator ambulant se opreste la un metru de mine isi lasa marfa si pleaca! Iata-ma cum stau eu asa cu ochelarii de soare pe nas, pe un scau pliant cu un stand de palarii in fata. Lumea, vine, probeaza, se uita la mine cu o privire intrebatoare, eu zambesc si zic: “-Nao falo Portugues”, asta insemnand ca nu vorbesc Portugheza, cu subanteles ca nu-s palariile mele, desi subantelesul pare ca e doar pentru mine.Distrat de situatie dar scos din meditatia contemplativa in care ma aflam, ma ridic si le spun copiilor: Am plecat sa scriu, nu mai e plaja asta ce-a fost! 🙂
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