Life lessons: Mindaugas.
Journalist Bibi Timmerman started writing down life lessons of the people she met while taking her campervan on the road in Europe for 2 months. Realising that actual wisdom can be found in the everyday person you meet on the street, she asked people: what is your biggest life lesson? This time: Mindaugas!
At a snail’s pace I drove up the mountain, hairpin after hairpin. It took my slow old van two hours to reach a special sleeping place in nature at the highest point (1491m) of the mountain range, located between Lago di Maggiore and Lago di Orta. Here I hoped to be all alone. When I saw three other campers up there a slight disappointment came over me. I parked next to a red van and got out to enjoy the view and catch my breath, when a cheerful bun and the matching head suddenly appeared from the van’s skylight. With a remarkably big smile my neighbor said: “Hi welcome. I am Mindaugas. How was your trip up? Would you like a cup of tea?’’ Mindaugas was from Lithuania, he told me that evening while drinking a cup of tea. He works with clay and makes colorful art walls. He also lived in the Netherlands for eight years, but now the red van is his home. Of course, I had to ask him the question: “Mindaugas, what is your biggest life lesson?”
Without a second thought, Midas, as he prefers to be called, answers: “Get to know yourself first, and then build your life around it.” I can't make it any easier, he says. ‘’Ask yourself: who am I? What am I good and bad at? Where do I come from? How was my childhood? What shaped my parents? When you have found those answers within you, then build your life. Otherwise you will make decisions that have nothing to do with who you really are and what you really like.’’
‘’When I was growing up, the Soviet Union had just collapsed. I left Lithuania when I was 18. My gut told me to explore this history, my own history. I contemplated every year of my life. It took all the waking hours of two full days before I was ready. I didn't really come to a conclusion, but I did get a lot of insights and answers. The unconscious part merged into the conscious part of the brain, just because I was paying attention to it. Suddenly I understood how much influence that environment - the soviet union- had on me when I was growing up. But who I really am is still a mystery, as Sadghuru says: "You are not your body, you are not your mind."
‘’This way of thinking, like considering and researching all the influences that shaped me, all started when I broke up with my Dutch girlfriend. I felt totally lost. After that I started asking myself the question: what do I really like? And the answer is: the simple things in life. I don't need a big house. I live in the now and act on things that are happening around me at that very moment. That takes me to the most beautiful places. Like the top of this mountain. With you. That's it, I still don't have a plan. If I think 'that's fun to do', then I'm going to do it. Is this a good long term plan? Maybe not, but for now I'm totally okay with this!’’
