Feeling calm and centred
I’ve been out of the UK couple of weeks, and notice that I’m feeling much more myself. Calm and happy I’ve got the time and inclination to think, to work and to spend time with other people. I think it’s got a lot to do with being away from the constant bombardment of advertising and commercialism I felt in London. That constant demand to evaluate my life, am I rich/happy enough? have I got all the material goods I’m entitled to? Am I living my life as fully as I should be? Living in a small mountain town in a foreign country where the language is not my own gives me freedom from that and allows me to concentrate on being myself. Things like growing a beard and wearing a silly flat cap.
I’m even starting to read in French little. Albert Camus’ L’Étranger. It’s interesting that etranger is translated as ‘Outsider’ in English. The French use the word to mean foreigner or foreign. It’s a project of mine to start to properly learn French so that even though I can always masquerade as an outsider, a foreigner, I can also be a real part of the community when it suits me.
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