Back

Anything is Better Than the Sofa: A Mantra for Life's Adventures | Day 297 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Oct 25, 2023· 3 minutes

Anything is better than the sofa!

Eleven years ago, when my youngest child was a newborn, we went on a 100-day road trip in Europe. My brother flew to meet us in Spain and joined the party for about six weeks.

This Road trip was epic. In so many ways. For this reflection, I will share only one point, a statement presented by my brother, a statement that stuck with us like a mantra and has become central to our shared understanding of life.

He said: “Anything is better than the sofa. You need to get out there. You might have a plan, you probably need a plan, but at the end of the day, the main purpose of that plan is to get you out there. Because anything is better than the sofa.”

There are, of course, things where the sofa is a better alternative. But I think if you try, you get the point.

I got the point on Tuesday where the downpour started at eight in the morning and continued the entire day. We spent a lot of time on the sofa on that day.

All doing our things: writing, working, exploring, studying, reading, gaming.

At the same time, the jet tag had an unforeseen backlash. We thought we were over it, getting used to the new sleeping and eating rhythm - and then exhaustion set in. Instead of feeling we were on top of the energies, it suddenly felt like we had been up all night for almost a week.

Low energy, tropical rain, sofa. The combo was BORING. We did get some things done, and it was a calm and cozy day.

Jesper and Storm enjoyed being stupid and playing basketball with swimming goggles on, to avoid getting the rain in their eyes. I walked in the sunset in a new direction, taking in the city with all the water. But at the end of the day, I felt it was bent in neon, shouting from the rooftops, written 100 times on the blackboard:

Anything is better than the sofa.

Just get out there.

And so continues our soft landing in Mexico, more real stuff slipping through the cracks of Tourist Friendly Surface, an unfolding of our spirits on new grounds, a realization we are on track, and every context has its treasures.

Even a rainy day on the sofa reminds us how beautiful it all is, and how little things, in reality, very often are big things.

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

See more images on Facebook!

Visiting Great Britain, we thought: let's go visit a tearoom. Asking around, the best tearoom in the area was supposedly the PuddleDuck Tearoom. Eati…Read more
I will let the pictures speak for themselves. There is not much more to say. Walking for several hours with my family and my friends in this beauty w…Read more
We all had the feeling we were walking in the Shire. Beauty unfolds all the time, new angles, new hills, new beautiful horizons and small details, fl…Read more
It can not wait; we are leaving soon. Living nomadically gives you a sense of urgency. It wakes you up and forces you to decide and revise what is mo…Read more
What is a good life? What makes us happy? How do we succeed in doing the things that make for a good life and make us happy? Hiking in the rain, chan…Read more
It is not very interesting to drive on a highway in the rain, slowly, because of road construction. One of the delays was a 27 minutes queue deriving…Read more
There is something about the footpaths in England. At some point, a law was installed to protect the paths, allowing everyone to walk on the establis…Read more
Watching Britain in a park. The different people, their vibes and styles, and projects. I love to look at people. I was amused by observing most of t…Read more
It is not like the world will stop spinning until I am done thinking. Wouldn’t that be nice, though? If the planet would please stop spinning, the in…Read more