Do you know that feeling when things just seem to fall into place? Daydreams of escaping the city to hide under autumn leaves come true when a friend invites you to his cottage in the middle of the woods. Projects that started in your head years ago turn into tangible works of art. A friend who lives on the other side of the world, who you haven't seen in ages, crosses your mind. Two hours later you get an email. That friend. Visiting the city you just moved to. If you would like to go for a drink?
I used to be a massive fan of the sentence: "wow, what a coincidence!" So many random great things were happening. I met a girl on two different sides of Australia, bumped into her again in Portugal and realised we were in New Zealand at the same time. Totally random. We didn't get each other's contacts, no facebook, no numbers. We just HAD to cross paths, something seemed to be telling us. These things happen to me all the time. So it's nice and easy to give them the name 'coincidences'. Guys, let's be honest. There is no such thing as coincidence.
Last week, in three days time, all three daydream examples came true. I spent Sunday in the forest, far far away from any city light. I met up with a friend from Australia who had a flight layover in Toronto. Another sweet Australian friend will be visiting my new city in two weeks. Maybe I should read the signs and book a flight to Australia to run away from Canadian winter. ;) And last but not least, I published my very first poetry book. A dream that had been wandering around my head for far too long. As the procrastinator I am, I distracted myself with plenty of useless things like insecurities, comparing myself to others, fear of showing my writing to anyone.
"But it's so personal, what if they don't like it, I'm not good enough" every single thought of silly insecurity moved into my head, decided to create a nest and live there for eternity. My dream was hidden behind a big roadblock, so I decided to cut through the woods and follow different paths instead. In the end, I arrived at the same destination. Instead of dealing with the roadblock and climbing over the damn thing, I took the long way around.
There were paths going left, right, up, down and straight through fields, forests, oceans. I had to learn a lot along the way. I fell on my face many times. I got back up on my feet every time. I arrived at the destination sweaty, muddy but glowing with pride and confidence. I did it. I got to where I wanted to be. I wrote a book filled with 40 poems about my nomadic life, love, anything that stirs my soul.
If you would like to get your hands on a copy of my book 'Visions of Paradise', please send me an email at jokederoeck@gmail.com and I will provide you with all the information. Examples of my poetry you can find while scrolling through this blog. If your life could use some nomadic poems, it would be my pleasure to spike your daydreams with tales of travels.
Thank you so much for your support, for reading my blog, sending me sweet words and making me feel like I'm on the right track, even when I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with roads leading to every direction possible and impossible. I send you all my love, gratitude and with my book, I will send you a handwritten letter with a personal message.
Thank you for making this happen! You guys ROCK my socks!