What can 'being outside' be refreshing, enlightening and innovative. It gives us new impulses and new perspectives on issues that concern us. I can sit behind my desk and stare at a blank Word document, but the inspiration stays out. I worry and push myself that something has to come out of my head. This is often only possible to a very limited extent. What comes next is certainly not original or surprising. It's almost torture to make something out of it. The "outside", on the other hand, works wonders. The brain then apparently detaches itself from the rigidification of the ratio.
This is how I cherish my Friday morning, when I go out into the water with seven other sizes in the ‘eight’. The Eem is so beautiful and in the silence of mirror-smooth water it takes on an almost mystical meaning. The beautiful landscape, which passes us with its Reed collars, vast meadows and dikes, brings me into a higher sense of well-being. The rhythm of the oars, which almost always slide clockwise with a slight splash in the water, brings us closer together as rowers, supported by the counting of the strokes by our helmsman. We become one with the landscape.
The poet Hans Favery puts it this way:
THE ROWERS
From Dear past; so
they come closer: 8 rowers,
further and further inland
growing in their mythology:
with each passing day
from home, rowing with all my might;
growing until all the water is gone,
and the whole landscape
fill to the brim. Eight –
further and further inland
rowing; no landscape there yet
water is more: dense
landscape al. Landscape,
more and more land-
inwards rowing; land
without rowers; close-
rowed land al.
In spite of, or perhaps better said thanks to. the concentration sometimes diverts my thoughts to a topic that concerns me. In the’ flow ' of the resonance of the beats, a new idea suddenly arises, a surge of new insight. It's a precious moment that happens to me. This inspiration also often comes in a moment of silence and being consciously present in what you are doing, while enjoying it. There is a growing certainty that oversees the situation from inner knowledge. The flow in which I then move can make me aware of this certainty and make me realize what it is about. Suddenly we discover what it really is about, who we are and what we actually want.
How do I hold that inspiration, I think, I don't want to forget it again. Fortunately, such a moment on the water is so present that it naturally settles in my brain, so that I still remember and can note it when I got home.
Unfortunately, we are often too busy to be quiet for a moment or to go into those stirrings of our soul. A sudden surge of happiness or new insight lets us pass by and seek a rational answer to it without realizing that these are precious moments that happen to us. True renewal does not come about in meetings and endless discussions, but from the reality of our existence by looking at it differently, from the heart, with Wonder and admiration and with gratitude. And where can you find that more than being outside in nature, in ‘flow’ or in silence.
Boy Van Droffelaar, PhD
