Happy Celebrations

// April 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // blog, life

This year I had a really great birthday-celebration. As a surprise I received dozens of e-mails and phone-calls from all sorts of (old) friends and people who stayed over in my house. And quite some people also came over to celebrate my 32th with me.

The day started with a great practical joke: on the casa-site I found myself back in a photo with the Dutch Royal Crown. If that wasn’t enough already, it came with a story “that several royals from across Europe will Hitchhike for the milestone birthday!”

Birthdays for me are always a good moment to reconnect with old friends and lost connections, which this year turned out very well. As another surprise, I even had grandpa coming over. It was great to see my 91-year-old opa here.

It is just wonderful to see how people care for you and what they do to show you their care. I received poetry, a painting, many good wishes and the people who are currently staying with me in the house, took really good care of visitors, a clean casa, and food around the clock.

My birthday this year encompassed a lot more than I expected. Therefore: a Huge Thank You!

Trusting Freely

// February 11th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // blog, life

How one thing leads to another. How one ride goes into the next. Always bringing me further. I surrender to the route that is shaping me.

Grounded on earth, but flying like a bird. How do I decide what is next? I leave it be, I wait for ideas to come, play with them; juggle to see what stays up and which lands in my hands.

Tidal waves come in and splash their drops. There is salt on my body and I allow the rain to wash it off. Naked, I deeply wish to always be.

Roaming freely, looking further, while taking my time to embed my feet… trusting what is underneath.

Trusting Experiences

// March 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // blog, dumpster diving, life, travel

Living in the house where I have been since I got back to Amsterdam has been truly amazing. Somehow I got to meet so many great people over the past year, that I cannot believe it myself all the time. So-called randomness has become a core of life. Through friends, friends through friends, those tagging along or sent by a letter, or through the ones we somehow found, it seems even more present than for example, while traveling.

There are many people who would appear here if I would list them. And way too many stories for a simple overview. Things have been really great, and there are numerous different accounts you can get your stories from. But one of the core values of these events though, might be the praxis of creation through the tasting of life and trusting.

[vimeo 3514257]

I am sure you will enjoy the video “Skipping Waste. Free (the) Food“, by Lily Barlow. While traveling and staying over at the casa, she made an awesome production about rescuing food from thrown away, and how to see waste as beauty. It documents six stories from three cities about dumpster divers, people who treasure and recreate trash.

To Not Think

// February 27th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // life, travel

Walking around a city. My thoughts go nowhere. I listen. I listen how the sound of the river flows with those of the city: the cars, the trains that pass, a barking dog and fluttering birds. A man walks by and blows his nose. And I? I observe how I feel my surroundings.

Not to think is truly one of the most relaxing exercises that I regularly do. And the more I do so the more I seem to become one with what is around me, the more I am able to focus and understand, simply by being, by feeling, by listening, hearing, smelling, but mostly by not thinking, by sensing.

Listening to the silence inside myself, it becomes easier to find my answers, to find my connection with my inner self. I let myself be guided by what I feel inside and by what my surrounding (which is now inside) is telling me.

And then, little by little, step by step, you realise you don’t have to think in order to know what is next: the right time and place is always there, no matter when, no matter where you actually are. You have reached closer to who you really are.

Same Different Story

// December 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // blog, life

One of my basic questions for this year was how to make the annual Christmas fest of spending, affluence and overconsumption into something sustainable, as a party of joy and sharing without the big spending that is normally associated with Christmas.

The answer was a lot easier than I thought – especially since we made Dumpster Diving a frequent activity here at the house, which started as a very practical way of feeding our hungry casa-visitors without emptying our wallets but turned quickly into our normal way of living.

Three delegates of the house therefore started already three days ahead of Christmas, bringing back home bags full of food from the market-dumpsters; good food that otherwise would have been thrown away. And each day, this food was only piling up…

Christmas eve itself was great. We had around 17 people coming over, everyone was participating in one way or the other to create the right setting for a perfect celebration – and although the laughing went on for the whole night, the day after I was fresh enough to hitch to my hometown & to have a great time with my family.

I Don’t Want a Career, I Want a Life

// December 10th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // life, work

My Life In A Cube

My biggest desire in life is to help enabling a world free of hierarchies. So when I did accept a job this year, I was only slightly enthousiastic. I needed some solid financial base and yes I was ready for a challenge but a corporate job was not on my list (at all). In the end I was relatively o.k. with giving it a green light for a while, until I would have at least build up some cash-reserves again.

There are good things about my job. I learned a lot about marketing, I got to understand the technologies that enterprises use to brainwash us, I traveled a bit, worked with some fine people and I learned a lot from them. But, there is so much more to life than just jobs and career.

So when to quit? There is never a better moment than now and I feel now is that time. There are so many useful things I can better direct my attention to, and there are so many more things I still want to accomplish in the near future, that most of my time in this office is wasted. And in the end, what is so usefull about working for someone else‘s profit?

Focus of the house

// September 21st, 2008 // 3 Comments » // life, work

While my house is still a coming and going of friendly and creative people from all over the world, since some months there has clearly been a shift. The people that have been staying here in the past months are now rather focused on projects, creating new concepts and starting initiatives, while still supporting the ones we have already been involved in. Some examples:

• Hitchhiking Hitchwiki, that recently reached its 1000th article.
• Random Roads, a new magazine for independent travelers.
• Trashwiki.org, a new initiative for Dumpster Diving, recycling trash.
• Sustainable Hospitality Exchange, with a meeting soon in Antwerpen.

And there is yet more to come. Bewelcome if you feel like participating, or stay over for a while to help working on whatever social project that you are involved in or that you want to create. We have a nice and creative working environment here.

Magic flute

// September 7th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // life, photography

In love with magic

Randomness in your life, hitch, play and fly. A flute maker finds you on your way – after a long night of  sleeping cold along the highway – and he brings you further. You allow it, you surrender to the magic of the moment and you meet … your love.

She was dancing in the moonlight – in front of the bonfire on the tones of the flute you received, the flute that ‘has a life on its own‘ and that ‘will take you on an adventure’. Together you started a story that appeals and inspires, a story that truly can be called the magic flute trail…

Thanks – and I will never forget the beautiful Kira smile. (more photos)

clowns everywhere

// June 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // life, photography

There is so much to write, so many things have been hapening lately. Been away to Denmark, there is a new collective photo-website, I am helping to organise an (un)conference on hospitality exchange, have been on an adventurous trip to Enkhuizen (fun!), friends are visiting from all-over, work is steady and the house in full progress. And then there is also a new movement for Apathy… More to come soon!

Space for Movement

// February 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // life

So much movement in so little time, it is like when sun and rain team up and show light in all colors. Slowly it builds up and bang it is there, right here, and I am in the midst of things, holding it in my own hands, realising it, fulfilling it.

A new job and at the same time a renovated house. Suddenly the base I had been working on is here, under my feet, above my head, it surrounds me, it carries me. No more nonsense, suddenly I have a house and a job, both with permanent contracts. And it doesn’t even frighten me.

Lots of work still needs to be done, but there is time and space to turn it into more than just a fulfillment of a promise; it is more than a dream that finally becomes true and a planning that becomes real. It is a space that opens up. A space for even more movement, that carries, facilitates and enables.