17
Jul
Songs to listen to while reading:
There’s a popular manifesting technique making the rounds these days. It implies scripting your dream life as a way of convincing your brain that it is indeed happening, that it should get ready to live in that reality. I’ve also tried it. Mostly for smaller things, because I don’t yet know what I want the future to hold for me. I know that’s not ideal, how can the Universe offer you what you want if you don’t know what that consists of?
However, I didn’t want my natural not-knowing to transform into another thing to feel guilty about. So I stuck to the small things. How can you run if you don’t feel safe with walking first? Even if you believe you are capable of great things (because you truly are), once you start running, where do you go?
I was thinking we could exercise those baby steps together, right here and right now. Let’s keep it light and sunny. And what’s sunnier than a joyful summer day? In order to combine methods and afternoon naps, I propose we share our dream summer day. Here is mine:
Waking up not quite with the sun, but not letting it set in the midst of the sky either. The first sounds I hear are waves and people walking idly on cobblestone. When I open my eyes, the sunlight greets me good morning and the disheveled heap of pillows and soft blankets remind me I do tend to move around a lot while sleeping.
I have coffee on the balcony with my friends and my sister. The passers-by smell faintly of sunscreen and carry colorful beach necessities with them, making me unwillingly think of tropical snails. It reminds me of childhood Saturdays, when my mom used to sip her morning coffee with no rush, no pressing matters. The breakfast is also served on the sturdy off-white table. It mainly consists of fresh local fruits, still warm and flaky pastries, lot of creamy homemade butter and strawberry jam.
After lots of carbs and chatter, we get ready for the beach. Our swimsuits are bright and fun, our jewelry drowning in shell or starfish-patterns. We are engulfed by sunscreen and sparkly body mist. All our essentials wait patiently in the hemp knitted bag: more sunscreen, books, earphones (so we can jam to the same playlist), ice-cold water, SPF lipstick, digital camera. Although the sun is smiling with its whole mouth, the gentle breeze keeps the temperature pleasant. If you’re very still and pay attention, you can catch the whispers between the trees, the giggles of the leaves.
We place our towels on the hot sand, making sure to be close enough to the sea so waves can caress us with salty droplets from time to time. For a while, we just lay there to soak in the warmth and the ease of the day. People are laughing or swimming or playing cards all around us, so the whole moment feels alive, while also seeming frozen in eternity. We take the occasional iced coffee or lemonade break. We float aimlessly in the sea or try to catch the foamiest waves to serve as carriages to the shore.
For lunch, we grab something light, such as a salad and some cheddar-sprinkled fries. We continue our chatter-fest because we seem to never run out of topics to tangle and untangle. After finishing our tanning and swimming session, I crave a cold shower and to just snuggle up in bed. My cheeks are flushed with delight after a whole morning of relaxing in the sun and the silky sheets cradle my body. I feel so safe and held. I read a couple of pages or maybe journal or write down some ideas. Maybe I simply stare out the window and get reminded of how much love and softness there is in the world.
My stream of thoughts gets interrupted by a knock on the door. Of course I want to go for a walk! The promenade is strutting alongside the water. On the other side there are lovely houses, swallowed by flowers and stories. Walking between these dreamy states of existence, we decide to stop for dessert. Ice-cream perhaps? Or a piece of chocolate-covered cake? Anyway, it tastes divine and it again reminds me of when I was little. More precisely, a last day of school.
The walk is long, but we don’t even feel the time passing us by. We are too mesmerized by the views: the sun whose down journey has slowly begun, the shy mountain tops one could spot in the distance, the tiny hidden beaches underneath some heavy, sleepy trees. Once we stop for a moment, we realize the hour and the light pressure in our feet. We decide to get back to our apartment in order to get ready for dinner.
Dinner is always an event. I choose an outfit that compliments my sun-kissed skin and jewelry that makes me feel like I have been offered to the shore by the ocean. The room is a mosaic of all our bottles of perfume and lotion, makeup sponges, butterfly hair clips and loosely-screwed eyeliner tubes. But this is what vacation is all about, in my opinion, even the chaos starts feeling peaceful.
After eating somewhere on a terrace, watching the sun’s final stroll before gently getting tucked in by the sky, we choose our cocktail of the night. Somewhere, at a dimly-lit bar, where a seemingly surreptitious band is playing. All is laughter, all is music. The salty air lingers on my dimples when I laugh and the stars start weighing lazily on my eyelashes. We can all feel it, that childhood tiredness, from being outside the whole day, from giggling until our cheeks hurt.
So we head back inside, for after beauty and tranquility there is only more beauty and tranquility.
And we are back! That would encapsulate my personal idea of a grand vacation day. From that, someone can easily extract what makes them feel comforted and safe, such as friends, family, certain places or nostalgic activities.
Because once you start writing, you’re transported there. You don’t even control the scenario anymore, you just experience it. You merely let it flow. And that’s exactly when your true needs and wants come to the surface.
What’s your dream summer day? Does it contain loads of laying in the sun and ice-cold beverages like mine? Or are you more of a hiking up the mountain type of soul?
