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!

How we dress and why is an interesting topic we have discussed hundreds of times in our family. It can be allabsorbing and too much, and how “not car…Read more
How can you be free when you are always told what to do? When you are taught to obey? Where is the brotherhood in a forced social field, in the build…Read more
One of the things we do most in our unschooling life is to talk. Many unschooling families tend to say the same: We talk and talk and talk. And doing…Read more
Once more, we woke up at the beach and joined the early birds running for a cold morning dip. What a wonderful thing to do in the morning, and so muc…Read more
As I am writing this, I will admit I am exhausted. I rolled out of bed at eight and joined the cold dip challenge. It was indeed cold. We are totall…Read more
The pop-up event has officially started. Twenty-two more families were arriving on top of the 14 already here. We are excited to reunite with old fri…Read more
I get to learn over and over to trust the process. Live unfolds beautifully. And that there is no need to panic. Any panic works against the unfoldin…Read more
It is very moist here. Rain comes in and out, grass full of dew in the morning, and the marsh vibrating with a baseline of water. We have been told i…Read more
During D-day, one of the parachuters had the bad luck of getting stuck hanging from the church tower. As the village at the time was taken over by th…Read more