Moments of clarity

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Not too long ago I had a very nice conversation with a great friend of mine. I could actually write a whole post about that conversation and I may do so in a near future, but this is not the point today. However, it is important to mention something about that conversation as an introduction to my post. In that conversation, we both described what I will call here “moments of clarity”. I will try to describe them: A sudden spark comes into your mind, a spark which sets everything around you in absolute silence. After a few seconds in which you feel a bit confused, simply watching around, this silence seems to deliver a thought into your mind which whispers “This is it”. And in that precise moment, a battery of thoughts float around in your mind bringing with them a pure absolute smile. I can put these thoughts into a couple of sentences: “This is what life is about” and “Life is beautiful”. After that your body reacts to those thoughts. I have noticed that my body experiences two different reactions, depending on the situation. In one of them, my body stays still, it gives me the goosebumps , I have a smile that covers the whole lower half of my face and I can only behold. The other type of reaction is characterized by closed eyes, smile twisted to one side, head bowed and nodding, which is accompanied by a right arm that is, from elbow to clenched fist, moving up and down. These moments are marvelous. This is why I know I am doing well in my life. This is why I know I am going on the right path. It is very simple, these moments happen more and more often.

This is a description of a moment or “feeling” whose peak lasts for a few seconds. This does not mean you forget about it immediately afterward. Not at all. This is just the moment of absolute awareness, of “clarity” and your satisfaction lasts for very long. Nevertheless, you cannot live 24h a day with such a feeling, it is too intense and would ruin your body too quickly. Let's imagine a drug, some chemical compound which triggers a whole cascade of responses in your body. When you ingest that drug, a certain time passes until you reach a peak to then enter a decreasing phase in which the drug is being excreted. OK, this “clarity” can be understood in a similar way. However, this can sometimes behave differently! Let's imagine you are continuously taking a drug at a certain rate while eliminating a part of it at a particular rate. You reach a plateau state in which any change in the intake rate leads to a exponential increase or decrease to finally reach a new level. OK so, I am going to share with you a week of my life, very recent, in which this “clarity” behaved in such a way. A week in which I reached a wonderful plateau or level, high enough to keep absolute happiness in my body and mind, high enough to feel absolutely complete, and low enough to prevent it from being toxic to my body. For a week, 8 friends including myself sailed through the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian seas, around Elba en Capraia, two beautiful islands part of the Tuscan archipielago. Let me try to get, through my writing, a small picture of what that was.

Sails extended, innocent white, shaped by the mighty wind which, capricious, dictates our direction. Only one sound, our boat cutting the sea as it advances, tenacious, brave, impassively following its way. Blue, clear sky and an encouraging sun, illuminating, showing all its glory. The vast sea around you, immense, endless, solid blue only altered by golden particles, glimpses of the sun caught on the surface of this majestic sea. You are on the deck, eyes half closed, contemplating that vast sea that surrounds you, searching, dreaming, simply beholding. Land appears to you, first a weak silhouette, which slowly solidifies, coming to life. Hills, peaks, birds, the coast, your destination. The intense blue of the sea switches to the most beautiful emerald green. Anchor!We will rest here tonight. On one side the cove, shore present just a few tens of meters away, the fine sand and the deep forest. On the other side, the sea, eternal, incorruptible, mystical. The sun approaches the horizon, burning the sky with its passion. The wounds of the sky take our breath, a whole explosion of shades floods our eyes: oranges, magentas, violets, purples. The sun abandons this day and as it goes down, a firing furrow widens on the sea surface and the golden particles multiply to millions. The night has come and the full moon, elegant, coquette, takes over. Did the furrow created by the sun ever disappear? Impossible to say, the furrow is still there but the golden particles have been substituted by a dense path of silver sparks. The moon irradiates wisdom, the scars of an old comrade visible to everyone. It irradiates solitude, calm and peace. You are a prisoner of its beauty and while observing it, there is nothing else in the world. You keep watching silent, and suddenly you feel your heart is being compressed. You take your hand to your chest, confused. You watch around and you realize: I am on a beautiful boat, for a week our boat, there is no city, there is no sadness, there is no rush, no envy, selfishness, anger, sadness, injustice, and most importantly, everything takes its real value. There is no banality regarded as important. You realize this is it. This is the Earth that is in tune with you. This is beauty embracing you. And the most beautiful thing, the best thing of all, is those people you have around you. You are sharing this moment with special people who have made your life even more beautiful from the very first moment you met them and you know they are in tune with you too. This is it and you know why your heart feels compressed. You forgot you were on a plateau and you realize you just suddenly changed the intake rate, you just had an exponential increase, you just had peak, a “moment of clarity”, one of the many you have throughout this fantastic week. Goosebumps, full smile, this is it!

I hope I managed to give a clear picture of how marvelous that week was. It was beautiful and authentic and the best of all was to share it with such an amazing people. If my description was not enough, below there is a video, made by one of those special people that I have in my life. A smile is drawn on my face every time I see it. Just to finish this post, I want to say you don't need to be on a boat to feel everything is perfect. I have had many “moments of clarity” in my life in many different situations. You do not pursue them, trying to make everything look perfect. They are just there and it is when you let go of the nonsense, the load, the banal when you see how simple and beautiful everything is. They are there when I ride my bike back home from work and I go along the river, I stop and contemplate the beauty of Prague in the late afternoon, when I am on the summit of a mountain and my graze embraces the infinite, when I lie down next to a lake with the deep forest behind me, when I watch and listen the birds, when nature plays for me. They are particularly intense when I am with a few good friends having a beer and laughing, when I receive a truthful hug, when I get a kiss, a smile from a beloved friend or relative, when I see my family waiting at the airport for me. The sincere smile of a person who loves you, a laughter of complicity between two, a look that penetrates your soul. Those are the best “moments of clarity”. This is it.

I have amazing people in my life. The best family and friends a person could ever have. To you all thank you. Because this post deals specially with my trip to Elba, I want to thank all the crew for such a great week and, just because, I want to have a special mention for Kacenka and Tomas. Thanks for being, simply, fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPmAqGt1wgQ&feature=player_embedded