Are we Surviving or Thriving?
Dear All,
I share these words with you in love, in the hope that they may serve as a loving and gentle reminder to remember what is truly important in life, in your life.
Years ago, our lives looked very different. I had just accepted a job as an Art Director for a major international clothing brand and we moved to the other side of the country to live closer to the company. We ended up in a real palace, an incredibly large and stately home with more rooms than we had stuff and more luxury than we needed, a large garden, steam bath and each had their own studio. On paper we made it, we earned huge amounts of money, my wife had her own restaurant and we had a beautiful place where we could build up the usual civilian life. Many people congratulated us on what seemed like a huge step “forward”.
A few months passed and it was the sudden arrival of the pandemic that brought us, and of course many of us, to an obligatory but necessary silence. It felt like the sudden halt of the world brought with it a huge invitation to reflection and contemplation, which in all honesty made us question our way of life. It put life in a beautiful and needed perspective and suddenly much of the above became completely unimportant. It didn't take long before we looked at each other and said: Is this it? Is this really it? Is this what our life will look like? Leaving early every day to stand in line to work? At the station or in traffic? To then run all day from meeting to meeting, to be confronted with the same endless mailbox whose bottom would never see the light of day. Once we had climbed the social ladder and arrived at this "step" in conventional life, we realised that it didn't actually made us deeply happy, it was comfortable at best but not fulfilling.
“We simply longed for a simple life, a life marked not by productivity but by presence, presence for the simple gift of being alive.”
Although we were immensely grateful for the abundance we found ourselves in, at the same time we noticed that we actually didn't desire that at all, we didn't desire a lot of luxury, a lot of money and a lot of stuff as this required us to always be "busy" and at work. We simply longed for a simple life, a life marked not by productivity but by presence, presence for the simple gift of being alive. A life in which our days are not filled with ‘meetings’ but with actual encounters with other people, animals and plants with whom we share this world. Over the next few months we made the conscious choice to part with that which no longer served the purpose of living a fulfilled and simple life, we parted ways with the lavish palace, donated most of our belongings to the thrift store and I said my job farewell in order to be in complete trust that life is guiding us to where we need to be.
From my own search for a blissful life and a constant research into its definition, the work "Surviving or Thriving" arose. For a period of one week I moved to Museum IJsselstein to live there, a kind of literal “artist in residence”, where I stayed continuously in the Museum. All my everyday activities from eating my breakfast, washing my face and brushing my teeth, reading a book until going to bed were lived through in the Museum. Nothing was staged and everything could be followed live via the internet and, of course, could be viewed during opening hours for visitors. What was on display was actually a recognisable daily routine that many of us live through, from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed and everything in between. The only difference being that it was moved from the context of the personal domain (the house) to a museum context where people could see it, but the content is largely identical and recognisable for many of us. Although it proved to be quite a sensational happening, it is good to explain what the work was really about. The work was not intended to invoke exhibitionism nor did it strive to identify with it. The fact that I was constantly present only served as a personification for propagating (and discussing) a larger issue. The actual substantive issue that I tried to address is how do we live and how does our way of life enable us to live a happy life? The work focuses on the question of the same name: “Are we surviving or thriving?”, in other words, does our life allow us to live, to flourish or are we simply surviving? It wasn't about endurance nor was it really about me, that was actually a kind of inoffensive lure to get into conversation with people. The fact that I was there brushing my teeth or sitting on the bed made people ask “what was I doing there?” To which I told them I lived “here” and asked them how they lived? What was their life like? What place did they call home? The real beauty of the work was the dialogue, that was what it was truly about for me, everything around it served as a guiding object to get into the conversations about the meaning of our lives.
As I try to write this adventurous story as best I can I realise that our story is probably very different from yours and that's great, honestly, it's wonderful (and necessary) that we all live our own story. Everyone writes their life story in a way that is unique to them, with their own sudden plot twists and interesting events. Our story is characterised by making certain choices simply because we experienced that a certain way of life did not suit us as well as we thought, but this is obviously different for everyone. However, what brings all our stories together is the same quest for a happy life and in it we all have to define for ourselves what happiness and living a fulfilled life means.
“How many times a week or month do you wake up with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the simple fact that you are alive?”
Because, how do we actually live a life of fulfilment and joy? How do we arrange our lives in such a way that we are happy? Does our current way of life allow us to flourish? Or are we simply surviving, day by day, waiting for the end of the week, waiting for a well-deserved vacation or even retirement? How many times a week or month do you wake up with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the simple fact that you are alive? Or how often do you feel unsatisfied when a new week has started and you have to go back to the office? Are you waiting for 'something' to be happy? Are you waiting for life? Or can you sing at the top of your lungs that you get to meet happiness every day in your life? If that is the case then we can shake hands but if not, what can change in your life so that you are truly happy? Perhaps by now you have grown tired of hearing or asking the umpteenth questions about “happiness”, they are questions that we hear a lot and read everywhere but for a good reason. I want to invite you to take a moment to think about this, what do you feel when you read these words? What does your life currently look like? What brings you happiness, even if only small? What has true meaning to you?
Dear and beautiful being reading this, I sincerely wish you nothing but a life of happiness, love and joy. It is such a godsend to be alive and the greatest gift is the time that has been given to us. You deserve the world and the world deserves to see you happy, it truly does.
In love and reverence, sven
