I have come to this place to be bored. It is a little corner in the southwest of Sweden where boats gently rock against the shingled shore. It is a landscape of barren beauty, where the summer sun lingers reluctant to bid farewell.
There aren’t any monuments to dissect, no grand natural features to explore. I’m not on the hunt for any interesting stories. My days will be simple rounds of perambulating the wharf, stopping into the grocery, and watching from my window as a motley of meteorological cloaks garb the maritime topography. I’m looking to be mired in a repetitive cycle of quotidian tasks. I’m anticipating the moment when the excitement of observing the island’s single ferry docking will wear off.
The locals, descendants of Viking fisherfolk, guard their privacy here. Aside from pleasant nods during my morning walks, they leave me to myself. There are a few books in the house to occupy me, there is a television. However, I don’t plan on using either. Even my journal lies unopened.
I’m doing nothing on purpose. I’m endeavoring to overcome my inner voice berating me for being unproductive. I’m applying myself to monotony, giving my faculties a chance to lay fallow. Like the seagulls whirring round the pier, I’m attempting satisfaction with existence. This is a time-out — a concept of punishment I never understood because it seemed to me a reward, a chance to be alone with my thoughts, to steep in my mental disarray.
In the precious hollow of this boredom I’m hoping new dreams will hatch. Perhaps the tide’s tedious swishing will unfurl hidden communities. Perhaps the repetitive clanging of rope against mast can enliven lost senses. On the other hand, no fruit may bear from my dormancy. I will make peace with that too.
My period of inactivity, of sitting in pause mode, isn’t a process. It is a short-term goal. A different way to be for me. I’m carving out a linear portion in time’s infinite loop, devoting that slice to cognitive wandering, an uncomfortable session with the space inside my brain. This will be another form of traveling, a journey into my interior landscapes.
Unfamiliar places can be wonderful. Novel experiences can be invigorating. But, I also long for those childhood summer months when my family and friends simply let me vegetate. There were no reading lists to accomplish, no supplementary lessons, no extracurricular pursuits, no planned escapades. I would hide out, unseen from adults and playmates, to daydream. From these reveries would spew forth rocket designs, fantasy tales, fortress blueprints, mystery plots.
I’m embracing that release which boredom grants me. I’m appreciating the disengagement, the not wanting. Who knows if I’ll devise grand schemes to fashion an empire or people the pages of my next book? The serpentine circuitry to that destination will be marvelous.
TRAVEL NOTE:
Daydreaming is enjoyable in a cozy Swedish interior. Swedish style today is synonymous with the national brand IKEA, but originated from the creative designs of Karin Bergöö. Educated as a painter, Bergöö transformed her home — Lilla Hyttnäs — into a functional, airy habitation. An innovative artist, Karin eschewed the typical dark, stuffy Victorian decor of the period by introducing the use of unfinished birch furniture, handmade fabrics, and white-and-blue as predominant color palettes.
Is boredom useful to you? What bores you and why? If you wish, tell me in the comments below.
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Beautifully written Atreyee. I felt like I was there with you taking in the serene surroundings. How wonderful to just sit for a change and just be. 🙂
Thank you, Lorelle. Once I got over feeling guilty about not doing anything, it was marvelous.
Ahhhh, always the guilt kicks in somewhere or another. Good on you lovely. ❤️
Ah, the luxury of hours and hours of daydreaming! I agree that the release from “things to do” opens up a space in which one can allow the mind to hatch new plans, ideas, or adventures. Like you, I find that an unfamiliar place, without too many distractions, is ideal. I consider a place that strikes a fine balance between nature and human activity to be just perfect for this purpose, as I love the calming energy of nature, while people watching often stirs my thoughts in just the right way to create sparks fueling my imagination. I hope you find the inspiration and creativity you are searching for.
“I consider a place that strikes a fine balance between nature and human activity to be just perfect for this purpose.” Me too! It’s a marvelous combination.
Is it Marstrand? These picturesque islands do look similar, but SO BEAUTIFUL! Thank you for sharing your photos.
It is. Did you enjoy your time there too?
Yes, very much 🙂 When I lived in Gothenburg I went there almost every weekend. Walked around the walking path that takes you around the island, meditated on the cliffs, read a good book, and had many wonderful picnics with friends and family.
Fantastic! I loved those cliffs and those island circuits too.
It is a fantastic place.
A pause to just be is anything but boring and is so very valuable. Enjoy your time. 🙂
Thank you. I’m finding it necessary as the years go by.
But are you really bored when you’re not fulfilling culture’s definition of « productive »? I doubt that being with yourself and your own thoughts is boring. 😉 Au contraire. I bet you discovered all kinds of things in that little village, revelations about your life, ideas for writing, other random treasures. I purposely set time aside to do nothing but wander the forest and let my mind soar. I receive so many ideas and solutions. The comedian George Carlin once said, « All children should have three hours of mandatory daydreaming. » But I think that should apply to adults, too. 🙂
You caught me out. 😁 I’ve never been bored in the sense people complain of…this was more setting aside of a portion of human-constructed linear time in which to wool-gather. I gave myself permission to not feel guilty about it and I’m going to do it again – only in weekly chunks rather than Carlin’s three-hours-a-day prescription.
It’s true that very few have the luxury of three hours a day. On working days I don’t, but I make up for it on days off. 😁 Its too bad that people in this culture feel the need to give themselves permission to not feel guilty.
Ha! I can’t imagine my life without guilt, for all sorts of petty societal infractions. It’s part of my DNA at this point.
The thing is…the only person who probably notices these infractions is you. Seriously. You’d be surprised how little others notice. When you realize this, life becomes really fun. 😁
🙂 One of the many benefits of getting older is that I’m caring less about other people judging me. Life is indeed becoming more fun.
Lovely images! This place would draw me, being around water, quiet folk, the sereneness. I live on a harbor that looks similar to your photos. Watching the comings and goings of the boats and wildlife is quite enjoyable. 🙂
Thank you! Anyplace by the ocean appeals to me, but I especially loved living in this small harbor with its quieter “comings and goings.”
What a fascinating concept. I really like it and can totally relate to those lazy non-productive summer months of my teenage youth. I wonder what ideas and dreams will come from this. So interesting.
It will be fun for me to see them slowly emerge….
I love your idea of “applying yourself to monotony.” It seems like the perfect antidote to the malady of multitasking that afflicts most of us in this modern age and robs us not only of our ability to concentrate, but to create. When you’re ready to reflect on this fallow time I will be very eager to hear whatever you care to share about your experience. In the meantime, at least you are getting some STUNNING photos.
Sweden in the summer has some fabulous lighting, which greatly helps with the photos and with doing nothing. My daydreaming time was fantastic…and I’m looking forward to doing more of it this season.
Ah opening your mind with solitude will open new doors and bring destinations and realizations you might not find in a hectic environment. We all need to slow down and be calm every now and then. Savor this moment.
Thank you, I intend on carving out more time this season to do what you so beautifully described.
Great photos of Sweden.Love the warm colors
Thank you! The sunlight there in the summer was fantastic.
This sounds perfect. To be honest, I’m not very good at it: I’ve preferred to be up and doing. But I’m slowly learning, and where you currently are looks like a great place to start.
This harbor has been the ideal location for reveries. There’s so much to observe and yet I’ve been able to put aside all my “to-dos.”
Your photos are always so lovely.
Thank you, I’m always pleased when people enjoy the view through my lens.
Sweden is very much underestimated as a destination. I’ve been there several times in the past and always enjoyed it. Once you get to know (Swedish) people they will open their heart. I stayed on Öland once for a week or so and when (after 8 or 9 years) the guesthouse owner had his holiday in my neck of the woods, he visited … Well that says something. Stunning land/sea/city/village-scapes; wonderful vistas and an inland boat ride from Göteborg to Stockholm sticks into your memory for a lifetime! No; I’ve never been bored in Sweden! 😉
It’s wonderful to know that you have such fond memories of your time in Sweden! Swedes have been extremely generous to me. I enjoy their quiet ways, their love of nature, their civic mindedness, their great respect for personal space and privacy. Island hopping near Göteberg has been a real treat for me.
❤ ❤ ❤
Oh, this sounds marvellous: satisfaction with existence. 🙂 Who doesn’t attempt it, will never know. Much joy in the process!
Ah, thank you! It sure is marvelous to take a time out and not do anything.
I hated boredom. Boredom to me is being 6 again and not knowing what to do, a vast ocean of time lying ahead of me and I don’t have a clue how to fill it. After that I have never been bored again. There always is something to do, to see, to think about, to read, to wander and wonder, to take pictures of – to dream. I don’t understand how people genuinly can be bored, except in situations one does’nt want to be. The lesson is: don’t be there. Be somewhere else. Like in Sweden or whatever place where one can set his/her mind free. 🙂
There are an infinite number of things to fill in boredom in today’s world. 🙂 I’m deliberately choosing not to take advantage of any of them. It’s not so much that I’m bored in Sweden as that I’m taking the time to be in abstraction once again. I’d like to go back to that moment when, as you so delightfully phrased it, I had to sink into the “vast ocean of time” and dwell there. I think it’ll have interesting results for me.