Greetings from Mission Beach

The days here in the jungle are similar to each other, in the morning I go to work, in the afternoon I go back home and on the way I try to avoid anything that jumps or crawls. In other words, it's difficult to try to find a topic to write about and I've been too lazy to even try. However, I have a day off today so I decided to make the effort and write about something about our live here in a yoga retreat and the thoughts that have surfaced during our stay.

The location on the top of a hill is beautiful but not very practical

In the previous posts I've "criticized" Australia for several things I find odd but of course there must be some other things that are better here. I already mentioned one such thing in the previous post, namely career changes. The other thing Australians understand but Finnish people and surely many other people, too, struggle with, is traveling.

Here people are more open to our "nomadic" lifestyle of wandering from one place to the next. In Finland people seem to think that life is a journey on a road leading straight from point A to point B and all the bumps and bends, which are seen as failures anyway. Actually, everything that doesn't comply with the prevalent norm goes under the title "failure". When I talked about my trip to Australia in Finland or with Finns,people were just puzzled. How is it possible that someone who's almost 30 doesn't want to concentrate and is not interested in career and starting a family? Well, too bad, I'm just not interested. Why do I have to have a reason?

I've met plenty of different people in this yoga place. I just had lunch and an interesting discussion with a lady who's staying here for holidays. She told me that Australian parents encourage their kids to travel and try different lifestyles. It's not an odd thing for young people in Australia to sped a year or two traipsing around the globe. It's more like a maturity rite, something that'll help you to grow and develop as a person. An investment in your own life.

We've met a lot of people who share this attitude. They all represent different profession, educational background, age group and most likely also different religious and political groups. It's a refreshing feeling to feel "ordinary", to do things that many others do, too. It's nice to hear encouraging comments, to hear that people think we are doing the right thing here. Why should you continue living inside a box when there's so much to see and experience outside of the box?

 So there's one thing that's better in Australia. People have noticed that there are many ways to live and they are all equally meaningful and valuable. It's possible to try different things and if you don't succeed, then what? You'll surely succeed in your future endeavors.  I hope I will take that kind of encouraging attitude with me.

Mission Beach

We visited the Mission Beach Sunday Market today. There's not that much to do in the jungle except for being outdoors and relaxing, so going to the market was a nice opportunity to go out. We met a Finnish couple, they have been living here almost 50 years now. We chatted with them for a while and I realized that Finns have always moved abroad, to North America, to Sweden, to Australia and to many other countries, to find a job or just for the adventure. The entire human kind has always been moving from one place to another. It's not a big deal.