346

 Plans for Easter

Easter (Easter Sunday, Thursday and Friday before it, and the Monday after it) is a public holiday in Denmark. It changes the flow of life. Many stores are closed, many fellow humans go on holidays. My partner, his mother, and his child went to their summer house to spend these days there. I decided not to join them and to spend this time with myself instead. I do not consider myself religious, but spiritual life is incredibly important to me. It includes connecting with nature and with myself, practising self-care and checking in with myself to see how my spiritual journey is unfolding. Though it might sound ego-centric, this practice allows me to serve fellow humans, non-humans, and nature better. 

My plans for this Easter are very simple and down-to-earth. First of all, I wanted to honour the space where I live, to clean it and experience deep gratitude towards the objects I live with. I spent time washing the backpack that I use when I travel and when I take my laptop with me. This backpack is made by a Swedish company from vinylon. The backpack cannot be washed in the washing machine, so I wash it by hand with natural soap and a sponge made from cellulose, in the shower, just like I wash my own material body. Then I let it air dry, which takes less than a day. 

There are a few objects I want to bring to a byttestation (swap shop). In the past few days I realised that I could live happily with even less. 

I want to read and write, something that I am able to do best when I am on my own.

I also want to return my most important possession to Nature. There is a stone that I mentioned countless times in this autoethnography. It's just a simple piece of granite that I found in northern Sweden. I then brought this stone with me to Finland and then to Denmark. It's a piece of Sweden, of the country I like. It was interesting to me that I was holding on to something so much when letting go is an important part of my worldview. Somehow I felt ready to let go of the stone too. Letting go of it means that I will have no sentimental items in my space. 

345

 Moments in Bornholm

In these autoethnographic notes I mentioned that I felt somewhat alienated from the summer house where I was staying. It belongs to my partner's mother. There is something about summer houses that makes me feel sad. Fellow humans use them only a few weeks a year. Oftentimes these houses are well-built and suitable for living all year round. When a house remains empty for such a long time, I believe it degrades. There is no one to let fresh air in, to repair the damage. When you open a summer house after many months of not being there, there is often dust, mould, dead insects. Even damaged pipes. The bedding and towels feel damp. The spices don't feel as fresh anymore. When I was young, I used to stay in my stepfather's summer house. It was also used only a couple of months a year. I would get allergic reactions there and would never feel attached to that place. It felt uncomfortable and not lived-in. 

Oftentimes, it feels that summer houses are built as status symbols rather than humble shelters/homes that enable one to connect with nature. It means they are often perhaps too big for the purpose. In the summer house where we were staying, the living room and the kitchen area were warm and dry because of the wood burner, but the bedroom and the bathroom felt damp and cold. On the second night, I decided to sleep in the living room area. A small cabin would have been much easier to look after. 

The area around the house is not used to grow any food, and that also made me feel sad. So much food could be grown there. Bornholm gets more sunshine than any other area in Denmark.

Something that I liked in the summer house were posters of fresh and sea water fish. I also like the location. The house is just by the sea, and I could be present with non-humans. The sea, the stones, seaweed, pine trees. I was inspired by stacked stones I saw on the beach, and I collected some stones and was stacking them in the bedroom where I was staying. 

I was going to bring some of the stones home to Copenhagen to use them as decorations, but then I decided to return them to nature. Here at home I have one stone that I brought with me from Sweden. I felt that one is enough. 

In Bornholm, we ate very simple food. Salads and pasta. In a store, I found this pasta that is made in Bornholm by a couple-owned business. They also grow the wheat that is used to make the pasta. Unfortunately it was wrapped in plastic. So it was a compromise, a local product packaged in a less than ideal packaging. I felt that it is easier to find more sustainable food in Copenhagen than in Bornholm, but perhaps if I lived there, I would find alternatives to shopping in a supermarket. 

344

 Slow travel back home

We left Bornholm yesterday. We walked from the summer house to the harbour. It took around an hour. Then we took a ferry to Ystad, and then a train to Malmö. In Malmö, we met a Swedish colleague and went for a fika with him in a local café. Then we took a train to Copenhagen and walked home from the station. The trip took some hours. Flying to and from Bornholm would take much less time but we avoid flying for ecological reasons. When I travel slowly, I feel more present and connected to places. I see more, notice and observe more on the journey. The train to Copenhagen was delayed, and these occurrences are also interesting and humbling. They always make me think about planning something. At times, things just don't go as planned, and that's ok.  

It was so wonderful to be in Sweden again, even if for just a few hours. I've lived in many countries, and Sweden is perhaps my most favourite one. I felt very much at home there. 

While in Bornholm and on the journey back, I was thinking how little I need to feel comfortable. I was travelling with just a small backpack. It was somewhat heavy because I was carrying my laptop and its charger. Apart from that, the heaviest item was my water bottle. Other things (a couple of items of clothing and personal care items) were very small and light. I was in Bornholm only a couple of days, but I wouldn't take more if I went there for weeks or even months. I would simply wash my clothes and repurchase soap and other minimal personal care items in Bornholm. With me I brought a couple of cropped tops, and I regret bringing them. I could live with one. When I came back home, I decided to give the other one away. It was one of those items that is nice and useful to have, but not necessary. It was also the last item made from bamboo viscose that I have. I don't think this fabric works well for my skin. It ages very quickly (that goes against the durability principle!) and I'm not sure about its sustainability credentials. In Bornholm, the summer house where we stayed (my partner's mother's summer house) is by the beach. In Denmark it is legal to swim naked. There were rarely any fellow humans on the beach too, so most of the time I could wear nothing and connect with nature without anything between me and her.