“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
(Robert Frost)
Spring is celebrated as the Time for new life to emerge and blossom. This natural life cycle invites us to awaken from our wintry ‘lying low’ slumberings and ‘to do it differently’. Every Spring, nature offers itself and us another chance to grow in more fruitful and enlivening ways.
Nine years ago I began writing these seasonal ‘Living The Dream’ articles inspired by meeting people down town who were also building new homes and lives. The catch-cry greeting was: ‘Hello. I’m so busy, got to rush’. New comers, old timers, business people or retirees all seemed to be chasing their tails! There is so much to do, or perhaps we feel that we need to be constantly busy. For some people this pace may be an urgent matter of financial survival. But for many of us who have come to Denmark to retire and/or have a better lifestyle, we live that flying city pace – doing more, getting more, creating neatest, tidiest and best!
Survival mode can become a habitual motivation and routine. Somehow slowing down, living differently or more simply and naturally means failure or danger. In my Winter article I published the ‘Vision and Values statement for Denmark’ created at the Feb/March 2013 Strategic Conversations Meetings with key Denmark leaders and which was facilitated and compiled by myself. I want to revisit this practical aspiration – “Denmark is the natural lifestyle Paradise of the Great Southern and The Place to celebrate and live well The Sustainable Dream.”
The personal and cultural invitation of this Denmark Vision is that we are a natural place to Thrive – to enjoy a celebratory, well and sustainable lifestyle. To ‘achieve’ this I invite us to take ‘the road less travelled’ and get off our habitual treadmills and create a Lifestyle worth living! For example my new lifestyle choice is to accept that I am now a few years older and it is timely to ask for and get help with the property. It is wiser to become more sustainable and not break myself by ‘doing it all’! That is simply drivenness, stuckness and stubbornness. Let us not be sprung by life but come to an enlivened Spring and enjoy more of ourselves and the paradise that Denmark is.