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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Bespoke Traveler 
Is not doing anything the same as boredom? I do not see this as boredom, but as a time to enjoy the little things. The time to think about many things … It brings me peace and insight to things. It brings me inspiration … I never get bored, but enjoy the time when I do nothing! 🙂 Amazing pictures! And again I enjoyed your story or interpretation about boredom 🙂
Best regards, Heidi
I suppose it depends on one’s particular definition of boredom. Perhaps we think of boredom as a negative. Some think of doing nothing as a negative. I’m defining boredom here as doing nothing, which for many of us is highly enjoyable. 🙂
Hi Bespoke Traveler,
I have nominated you for the Liebster Award! I did this as an appreciation and respect for your amusing travel stories with pictures and inspiring blog work you spend on it! Feel free and not obliged to or not to go into it. You have earned the nomination anyway! But if you would like to answer my questionnaire or to read my post and answers about my nomination, please check out my post …
https://darkflowersite.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/liebster-award/
My congratulation and thanks for following my site! Have a nice week!
Warm regards, Heidi
I’m so honored by this nomination Heidi! Thank you and I look forward to reading your post. 💙
You’re welcome and congrats with your nomination! 💙 🙂
I don’t see it as boredom. How invigorating it is to breath in salty sea breeze, to enjoy ever changing scenery of rolling waves, beautiful sunsets, and sailboats. It’s great to daydream about the Vikings, who lived there centuries ago and meet their decedents at the grocery store, on the streets and on the waterfront. Is it true that when you are not looking for a story, the story will come to you? In your imagination maybe. I should try it too. Thank you for a great idea. Photos are very beautiful as well.
Sometimes when I haven’t been looking for a story, it comes to me. Other times I have to do a lot of work to search for the story. Your comment just gave me the idea for one. Thank you.
Coincidentally a few weeks ago I read an article about how being constantly busy — thanks to the Internet and our smartphones — has killed creativity. The writer reasons that when humans are allowed to be bored, to be in a situation when they have nothing to do, that’s when creativity kicks in. It is in our nature to create something useful or simply entertaining to kill our boredom, and by doing so we contribute to humanity.
On the opposite side of things, I read an article that claimed many wars were fought because of boredom, so I remain uncertain about its merits for humanity. The fascinating thing about manmade inventions is how they quickly evolve from magical solutions which will lead us to utopia into objects of culpability which are hastening us into new hells.
I guess moderation is always the best.
🙂 I always seem to come back to this conclusion too.
I enjoyed this post very much. Your photos are so beautiful and inspire to travel to places, which You presented.
How joyful to hear! Sweden has as many lovely locations as Finland and I think many of the landscapes would feel familiar to you.
I don’t think I could plan to be bored, it would not work. What might work is to put myself into a beautiful location, like this Swedish village, and give myself time to take in all the goings-on. I am pretty certain that I would find inspiration, and I am pretty certain so will you! 🙂
Thank you! I’m lucky to be in these locations.
Sounds meditative. Recharging the batteries, introvert style. Stop and smell the roses (but maybe not the lutefisk). A good state of mind for photography.
Exactly. I carefully avoided any and all lutefisk.
This is a wonderful heartfelt blog and Your photos are always so lovely..
I look forward to following along.
Greetings from the beautiful Rhine-Highlands / Germany …
Rosie
Thank you Rosie! I love having your support on the journey.
🙂
Interesting isn’t it, our need to schedule in “boredom”/”unscheduled time” when it used to come so naturally as kids?! Now it takes me considerable effort to simply “just be”. Maybe it’s a function of getting older? This little pocket of Sweden looks like the perfect place to “embrace the release granted by boredom”. Enjoy!
Thank you. I had a marvelous period of doing nothing. It’s very interesting that so many things we did as children naturally are taught out of us because they are deemed inappropriate for adults, but which have no logical basis. I was just in the store where a kid wanted a pink truck. His mother’s first response was, “Oh no, pick a different one. That color’s for girls.”
Summer calls out for disengagement and languor, but most of us don’t heed that call. I try to – even if just for a few minutes each day or a few days each month; it’s so restorative. How long will you be able to sit still and think? Sounds like a heavenly time and place!
I wish I could do it for the entire summer! Sadly, I was only able to enjoy a week and a half of it. But, I’m scheduling more boredom for myself this season.
Bonjour, que vos photos sont belles, ces endroits sont magnifiques et j’aime beaucoup cette douce lumière.
Belle journée.
Salut! Je suis tellement content que vous ayez apprécié les photos. La lumière en Suède pendant l’été est magique. Je l’ai aimé aussi. Merci pour la visite.
Beautiful silence…I hope your calm brought you clarity of heart and soul. Lovely!
It certainly did, thank you!
I love the idea of disconnecting in this way, I hope it will be productive for you. I love the light in these photos.
Thanks, Amy. The light of summer Sweden is beautiful. It reminded me of the light in the Côte d’Azur.
Hi, Atreyee. This is a time-honored tradition. To let the mind lie “fallow!” I’m so glad you are giving yourself “permission” to do this. I truly think that if more people did this our world would be less frenetic and there would be more peace within us, our communities, and throughout the world! Of course, the writer in me wants you to record your thoughts during this time! But I understand your discipline of doing “nothing” (which in fact is doing something!). Keep us posted as to what happens.
Hello Patti. Believe me, it required a lot of discipline not to open up my journal or any of the available books. How superbly you put it: one of the things I discovered was that what I thought would be doing nothing was actually an activity in its own right. What a lot of random, disconnected thoughts I had rushing through while I was bored! It’s difficult to simply be, to let my mind empty.
I never allow myself to be bored. I always have to have something to do. And yet I read this piece and long for it, that freedom to do nothing. Complicated. I am curious to see what happens for you.
The most difficult part about not doing anything that wasn’t part of an everyday (making meals or washing dishes etc.) necessity was not feeling guilty about it. Once that went away, it was very therapeutic. I’m hoping to schedule in some more chunks, because I think with practice, I’ll really profit from it.
I love this post and the photos are particularly serene – wonderful colors. I think it’s great that you had a time in your life without a schedule. I can’t remember that in mine.
Ironically, I had to schedule it into my life. And I’ll probably have to keep doing so because my default mode is to be engaged in something.