You may say I’m a dreamer…

“Imagine no possessions…”
When I was still a serial expat, I longed to have a place where I could settle a bit. I was moving to new places every six to eighteen months and I could never bring more with me than I could carry. All those years, all my belongings fit into a suitcase, a backpack and perhaps one or two small extra bags. When I moved back to the Netherlands in 2014, I thought I would settle. I got myself a nice apartment, got to furnish it the way I liked (including my guitars on the wall) and I felt, and still feel, very much at home. I like the job I’m in and I like my home. It’s almost been two years now though and perhaps I have nomadic blood, because somewhere I am itching and wishing for something else. And this comes together with another thing: after the great disappointment working for the UN, I have had this thought that the job I’m currently in is ‘my last chance’ of working in the human rights and development sector. There are many frustrations working in this field and I think, for my own sanity, that when this job ends, that will be the end of my career in this field. And I’m definitely not a person for the corporate field. And with that comes my wish for no (or very few) possessions, but a richer life.

“I have a (new) dream…”
I have a wish to live with less, to remove myself from society and live in the wild. The ‘cabin in the woods’ idea. Have I gone nuts? Perhaps. Or perhaps our world is so nuts that I want to chase a purer life outside of our ‘normality’ and reconnect with nature. My nature.

“The world has enough for everyone’s need…”
In my mind, I’m thinking of all the things I would sell (nearly everything) and wondering how I will survive. I could either occasionally work remotely in order to get some income once in a while, or be reliant on nature. And I’m more appealed by the latter. I would like to move around, so I could not live off the land by growing vegetables and fruits. I would have to be lucky enough to come across trees/bushes that carry ripe nuts or fruits, or… fish/hunt. As a vegetarian/home vegan, this idea is still a bit appalling to me. At the same time, I believe in being flexible and everything is context-dependent. If I would stay a city-person, I would stay vegetarian/vegan. But in the wild, I do think that fishing/hunting for my food would be necessarily and in all, the most honest form of meat-consumption. I could come to terms with that. This context would also be the only situation in which I would make use of fur in order not to waste anything. I would have to learn a lot, but I’m willing to do so.

“I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike…”
I would like to bike around (I’m Dutch alright!) and sleep in my tent, starting my journey from Alaska and making my way down to Argentina. Perhaps I will bike to other places as well. Or perhaps I will find a place that I’d want to stay in for a while. Who knows? But one thing I do know and that is that I’m getting a bit tired of the world we currently live in. Politically, socially, morally – everything. Perhaps it’s selfish to leave a job with a greater purpose. At the same time, I think I may be losing (or have already lost) my faith in bettering the world. This crazy world, in which people behead each other still. In which we make distinctions based on factors no-one chose (where we’re born, what colour skin we have, etc.). In which we value money and power over human or other life. In which we think about ourselves only.

I’ll be selfish, but not ego-centric.
I’ll aim for something more by living with less.
I’ll live life fully, with an empty schedule.

Sounds simple enough, no? Simple, yet complete.