And from all this marveling and staring and writing about the beauty of this day, my oatmeal's gone rather cold. No matter, its tepid temperature beats the cold anyway. I'll be heading outside, but first my coffee will have to be enjoyed in peace.
* * *
Yesterday I headed out to Järna, where I visited a girl from Hawaii who is part of the Youth Initiative Program in Ytterjärna. I love going to Järna. I can't really explain why, but that place instills such a peace within me that I almost go there for retreat. I've been feeling a bit ready for a place of my own, or at least some space from all the people in the city, and considered going up to Kiruna for some Northern Lights. Kiruna is extremely far away though, so a nice day-trip to Järna was a good interim solution. My new acquaintance is from Maui, and so though we shared a state in common, we had a lot to teach each other. It's sad in a way, that in Hawaii we actually are quite separated from our inter-island fellows, and don't experience their ways of life as much as we could or probably should. I think it would be magnificently beneficial to include the thoughts of people living in Kaho'olawe or Kauai when it comes to legislation, cultural things, and just to enhance our outlook on life in general.
Anyway, we spent the whole day together, first making ourselves a delicious lunch, and then roughly two hours in the sauna. I can't begin to express how nice it is to hear the words "Shoots" and "Titta" dropped in conversation. I actually had to stop and comment when I heard those tidbits of local jargon and thank her for being from Hawaii. It's actually perfect to find another runaway, or person who left Hawaii, loves Sweden and hopes to stay for a while. There are a lot of things that I can't explain to others that she might be able to understand.
Two hours in the sauna did me a lot of good. I drank lots of water throughout the whole session and have never seen so much sweat accumulate at once. It was great. I really feel like I've been purified from the inside out, and not just like those brief 15-minute sauna jaunts after the gym, but a real, full replacement of my body's water supply. I think getting naked and sitting in a small warm room with a near-stranger and talking about everything possible and personal, is a really great way to get to know somebody. I probably enjoy those close encounters the most.
In a similar situation, I met a friend in Germany in 2011, who had also been a WWOOFer at Rosenhill, and I kept running across her name on facebook. I messaged her one day and it turned out that she was from a German town 30 minutes away from the town where I had been studying. I blindly took a train to meet her and we ended up curling up in her bed with glasses of red wine, looking at photos of the farm, cuddling and both so happy to have met each other. The hangout that followed suit was a costume party with sillyness and a cuddly sleepover. Great experiences, where the normal socials laws of "keep proper distance" don't have to apply, and you can be as human and kind and wonderful as you want without breaking some strange social taboo. That's surely a way to avoid superficial friendships.
As always, Järna was wonderful but incredibly draining. There is something very downwards-pulling about that place; perhaps the word is grounding or deep or.... I can't find words to describe, there's just a feeling that your soul is being spread out all over the grounds and with it your energy goes into some communally shared energy pool that you can't take with you once you leave. I stood at the bus stop for 20 freezing minutes, and shivered the succeeding two hours worth of train rides home. But it was so worth it! And this morning a nice, dry, -5°C winter wonderland awaits!
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