Tiny Trullo

How patient are you? I hate it when things don't go fast enough…. Do we need to learn to be patient? Or is it heatlhy to want to speed things up? Here in Puglia, South Italy, living on a construction site, I am confronted daily with situations testing my patience. Construction workers arrive late, or much earlier than agreed, or sometimes don't come at all. Material is delivered much later than expected. Suppliers can't find the address, but don't bother to call or view the Google maps location, which I always include. My neighbor Mario, who has built my tiny house, laughs at me every time I want to do something quickly, which of course never works. He says, “Esther, you have to learn to be patient. That's how it works here.” And yes, maybe that's why I ended up in Puglia, to learn to be patient. But my drive for efficiency is being put to the test. What's more important? Efficiency, or feeling relaxed?

The past month has been a chaos of movements. From Amsterdam to Italy, via friends in Portugal to Miami, and with various stops back to Italy, where I am still staying in an Airbnb because my house is not ready yet. It makes me feel restless, but I know that peace will soon come; when I can finally move to my Tiny House and start decorating it. The end is in sight. In the meantime, I have daily WhatsApp contact with a friend in Hawaii who is temporarily homeless. There is a housing crisis since corona because many Americans have moved from the mainland to the islands, making both purchasing or renting a place impossible or unaffordable. My friend lives in her car and is completely in survival mode, with no hope of things getting better. Several coaching clients are about to give up their homes to travel in a motorhome and become entrepreneurs. Although that is a conscious choice for them, it also causes stress. All this makes you think. What does (at) home mean? Is home a physical place? Is it 'where the heart is'? Is it where your laptop automatically recognizes the WiFi? 😜 A few reflections for this month, so that you can determine what (at) home means to you.

After recovering from the post-Covid energy dip (which took longer than I thought), and some other hiccups/dips, I feel like there is a new quality in my life. I have had to slow down quite a lot in the past 2 months or so, which gave me time to practice surrender and being in the moment. I want to be able to listen to my heart even more. The most important thing for me now is to live with my heart open. It has been scary for so long. Scared to be vulnerable, scared to be hurt. Yet pain is part of life. Even with my adventurous life full of great things, I cannot enjoy everything fully with a closed heart. That’s why recently, in my beloved Puglia, Italy, I got a tattoo of a small heart on my heart; to remind myself every day to live with an open heart. In this inspiration shot, I would like to share some things that may help you to follow your heart too.

After 30 years of entrepreneurship and more than 15 years of location independent living, you could say that uncertainty has become my comfort zone. For me, this means staying both alert and flexible, resulting in a more interesting life. If you let go of all expectations, there is room to be surprised. Sometimes positively, sometimes… less positive… :) I don't know what's in the air, but last month was full of surprises! Have you experienced that too? I would like to share some of them with you.

More and more friends call me, anxious for some perspective. They feel like they are losing their sense of freedom. Apparently, they assume that I see the world differently and thus can broaden their perspective. Perhaps I do. When you travel as much as I do, you encounter different interpretations of the same facts and circumstances; different measures, solutions, attitudes, and therefore perspectives. I have learned that you can focus on what is not there (anymore), and what you can't or are not allowed to do, but you can also look at what is still there. The trick is to focus on everyday beautiful things. I myself am still surprised by the effect of paying attention to the little things that you might otherwise miss. A sleepy village, a beautiful FaceTime moment with my father, the complex taste of my olive oil, a beautiful nature photo or a new idea, a new opportunity. In this Inspiration Shot, I will share a few of those with you.

On Liberation Day I traveled from Geneva via Amsterdam to Puglia. In the middle of the various lockdowns. That made me realize again that many boundaries and limitations are more in our heads than they really hold us back. In this inspiration shot, I don't necessarily want to glorify traveling, but I do want to make you think about what freedom means to you.

Vaak zien we op tegen het schrijven van updates, social media posts, nieuwsbrieven of blogs, omdat we denken dat we altijd iets nieuws moeten verzinnen. Zonde, want de meesten van ons hebben al zoveel goed materiaal! Maar hoe weet je wat ‘goed’ is? Dat is dan weer het handige van social media: je ontvangt directe feedback, in de vorm van likes, views, comments en shares. Ter inspiratie hierbij een compilatie van mijn meest gelezen en gedeelde posts in de afgelopen maand.