Fulfilling Day

Sunday. 30 Aug. 2009

Yesterday was the most fulfilling day that I have had in a while. Friday night a polish guy named Matteuz, (Matthew) who is writing a guidebook on Greece, stayed here and in the morning I went with him to see “The Red House” and a castle here in Halkida. (pictures here) They’re both close to Phil’s flat so we just walked there but we were lucky that we had a map of the town otherwise we might still be wondering around these confusing streets. When we got back I taught my music lessons that I do on Saturdays through my company Zachar Music which is always a hard, but rewarding time and afterwards, Matteuz, Lefteris, Petros, and I had discussions for hours. Matteuz left at 10:30 but Lefteris and I had discussions about Christianity and marriage for probably another 3 or 4 hours.

I’ve found the greek people that I’ve talked with very interesting. They have all been ready for a discussion and stay surprisingly open and clear minded throughout it. They take things as they are and don’t complain or try to change things that they think are outside of their control. They change what they can with themselves and then just accept what happens. They use the phrase “simple as” a lot when they’re discussing because they make a conscious decision to do something and then bear the consequences and try to make the best of it. For example, Phil and Lefteris have decided to be generous and, in being that way, they know that their generosity will be abused, simple as, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to be generous. Lefteris may say, “Some people don’t return the favor but that’s their problem, it’s not mine and it’s not going to effect me. I will still be generous, simple as.”

They are much more clear minded than I am and I can learn a lot from them.
After the discussions, Lefteris and I slept on the patio outside under the stars. It was a more satisfying sleep than I’ve had in a while. It was a sleep that comes only after a hard days work where I was productive but didn’t kill myself. When I was working on starting my company I was working too hard for this kind of sleep and since I’ve been here I haven’t been working hard enough for this kind of sleep but last night was perfect. Plus sleeping under the stars is always a huge bonus.

Dave

(See link under his name to go to his travel blog).