Dad always talks about his previous life, the days when he was a flight engineer, on the most beautiful plane ever built, a Boeing 747. We were brought up on the saying, “If it ain’t a Boeing, we ain’t going” Flying and travelling were what he loved most. Besides us, of course, and he truly does love us.
It suddenly dawned on me that I have one too; in fact, we all do. A time gone by when we were doing something we loved, and now we are no longer doing it. Why? How? What? When? Where? Who even knows, I do and here is mine.
For me, this was a thriving business, yoga, stand-up paddle-boarding and longboard skateboarding. Then I lost it all, as many of us in the travel industry did during the pandemic, through no fault of our own. With it went the confidence. Trying to get it back is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do!
Like travel, sometimes it is the micro movements that count the most. Now I do it for me, myself and I. It is not easy, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it right?
How? How do you do this? I have no idea, but I am going to try, because when you stop trying, you stop living. It is the Varges way! We are creative by nature, like travel, it is in our DNA. We make stuff, we fix stuff, and we keep trying until we get it right.
Being a writer is great, if you can think it, you can write it, and it can be anything you want it to be. So, here is what I want my writing to be for me, and you, if you want it to be that way too. This is my website, and it serves as my creative space as a writer.
Being a creative means you have creative license and can do what I, well, like! No rules. There is always a beginning, like everything; however, like the rest, there is no end. Yeah, yeah, I hear you saying that when we die, it’s all over……is it, though?
One of my favourite movies we watched as kids, rented from the video store on Beta Max, yes, I am that old, was Monty Python, all of them. The best ever was John Cleese and the dead Parrot.
The Point: at some point, we all die, we are dead, we are no more, we are all a Polly Parrot. The question is, will we become no more, or will we actually leave something behind? For me, it is the latter, because one day a legend like John Cleese will be no more, too, but what he leaves us will be a lasting legacy: some of the best comedy ever, and of course, a powerful reminder that we can all be creative.
In his Legendary 1991 Speech About Creativity, John Cleese, talks about a lot of lightbulb’s but perhaps the point was finding my lightbulb moment and I did indeed. See creativity is way of operating, and everybody has it they “Just” don’t use it. Why?
Perhaps like me, we are taught that if we are creative we simply won’t function in a working world. In order to function and earn a living we need to operate in the closed mode, to be creative we have to remain open. So here is my question, what if there was away to do both?
Doing what you love, loving what you do, while earning a living is a utopia or Oasis as John puts it. Many of us search for, yet very few manage to achieve. But what if there was a way? To truly find your purpose, love it, and get paid to do it. If it were easy everyone would be doing it right and the world would not be full of poor people, like me and you.
So without writing a whole new book here, I am going to leave this here for now, because I am a creative and if I were to tell you everything now you wouldn’t follow me and see what else I have to say. Leaving you with this, in order to be creative you need time, space and quiet. When you have that the magic happens.
Being creative means I can do what I want, how I want and create my own set of rules. To truly be creative there is no right or wrong and when you include basic human values into this system you can find your passion, purpose and what the world needs. That is the sweet spot, where Travel meet Science, which I like to call the Science of Travel.
and then……..you build a puzzle, one piece at a time! Why, because who doesn’t love puzzles. Am I right?
It’s okay if you only make your bed; it’s okay when you make your bed and shower, then you need to find the next step and the next and the next. You need to crawl back if you have to. To that confidence that moved you automatically without even trying.
To become unstuck. To unhide and move. Truth is the only one you are hiding from is yourself. And truth be told that’s “just” dumb if you think about it, I mean really. How dumb are we really? We can escape many things but escaping ourselves is impossible, not even Hawking’s atom can escape that.
I am a different person now, still the upstream swimmer, the nonconformist, now I add creative, brave, and daring. Even when you need to be fearless and deep down you are petrified. You can’t loose anything when you have lost it all before.
Fake it till you make it — Richard Branson
Time to put the bad into the cupboard, or chuck it, and only take out the good. If there is one thing travel has no tolerance for and that’s excess luggage. It comes at a price and a big one too now days, even cabin baggage comes at a premium. Never mind that chosen seat and bottle of water inflight.
Everything comes at a cost. This time the only one charging you is you. so how much are you worth? You have a choice, start believing you can get a free ride in this life or not. While everything does come at a price in this life, choice is free, it’s the bad ones that carrier the price tag. You will be amazed what creativity can do with a limited budget, if you are prepared to live and learn.
“Adveristy breads Creativity” — Unknow
Creativity is not about fitting in or meeting a standard. It is about freedom and expression.
If anyone tries to tell you how to be creative, remember it is a fire inside you to keep alive. Light it up and let it guide you wherever you want to go. The journey is yours to write, piece by piece.
That is the most beautiful story of all. The End….or is it?
More on the science of travel is coming soon, so make sure you follow to join me on this journey.