How can I work and be with others that allow us all to feel free?
- Aoyumi Jung
- Apr 7
- 6 min read
05&06 April 2025
@Nibble House, Yitterjarna, Sweden
I am grateful for being in this new community space where I could look at the blue sky, cloud flowing, and bird spreading wings. A week past feels quite long and intense. Everyday sunlight lasts till 930pm, as if I’ve done so much! I don’t know why the Initiative Forum has become more enormous to me. I think of it before bed and after I wake up.
Time goes by, and I don’t like the idea that I have to separate my blogs into 2 folders because YIP spans from 2024 to 2025. Why do I have to stick to 2 years anyway? Myself changes everyday, and the shift of the year is maybe framed by human beings, but not necessarily a real milestone of my personal transition.
Recently I feel like I’ve been judged, I’ve been rushed, I've not been listened to, after moments of working in groups and presenting my ideas. It’s very weird that I feel this way being at YIP. I was told a few times that time’s out. Perhaps, I expect to be free here, so I felt a bit disappointed not to feel that free. Or I have to push myself through, and try to fit in such boundaries, and understand the principle that “Time is a shared resource”? The mission of balancing freedom and responsibility is such a dilemma.
Future Project, let “time” go
I came to the conclusion that I want to have infinite time in my future. I will have autonomy to live however I want, to be in the present. I do not cook if I don’t feel hungry. I walk outside because there’s a need to be exposed to nature. I know concluding is never an ending. But I really mean a need for free expression without limitations of time. I realized I hate the concept of time. I would turn people's attention away from checking what’s the time, how long it takes, but be truly in the moment, in the “zone”. I didn’t know Elias touched upon that “zone” state where time and space disappears. Milena said I have the capacity to be in the zone when I express myself. I need the nonexistence of time to allow unknown thoughts to be expressed, allow clarity to shape, allow free expression.
Imagining my future, I would create a space where time doesn’t exist. Only nurture the sensitivity to our organic rhythm of life and cycle of nature!
Human beings thought and think that we could control nature with time, yet, it’s a ridiculous belief. We kill ourselves with our own invention. We box ourselves into constraints and we do not realize we can’t feel our best self and show up all versions of self because of that. I THINK.
Sitting in Nibble, this house is full of sunlight, the ideal setting for a home to live in. Since my childhood, I have loved a home full of glasses so that I feel more transparent with the environment that holds me, and I am part of it. Sunlight comes through, air moves around like a swirl. There’s no need for electric lighting during the day. A cosy spacious place with a common area for hanging out, various activities, with an airy kitchen and eating tables. This is such a perfect design, or role model.
How can I study the structure of this house and bring it back? I told Mon that I could find a budget to create such space to host people. I would make coffee and cakes, tea and drinks for emotional and physical needs. Also, hosting goes beyond making food and beverages. Hosting is to introduce something new, to open up an arena for thoughts, for creations and connections, from my perspective. So, I like to host conversations that matter at the moment of living, that allow people to bring in their interests, knowledge and learn from each other. Hosting will also refer to creating a sense of freedom and meanings for and with others. So people who come to my place would feel free, grounded, creative and curious to explore meanings of life.
I think so much about a future I want to live, I want to carry the present moment forward. I would love to learn how this house is designed, constructed, the principles of lighting, energy, layout, spirituality, landscape… There’s so much to study about this place, and carry it with me when I go home, and find my true home.
As we celebrated Erin's birthday, lots of people came for creative pancakes and shared different things. It rang me back to the first day arriving at Tallevana, feeling full of young energy and playfulness of everyone. I am so happy to feel like a host. I would imagine myself hosting that many friends and guests in the future. We could have social times as well as silent meditative meals. So many things that we could do together with love and connections. I am so happy just to imagine such images of daily activities. Here I have the space to dream, indeed like what Reinound said about how YIP provides a conducive environment including healthy food, healthy rhythm, healthy community agreement, to manifest ideas and to take initiatives.
Interconnected realities
It’s interesting to see reality as the mirror of a reality of my own, or a bar of comparison for the values I want to live.
In the community meeting on Friday, Annie said it’s so strange that when we are here in a different setting, it’s crazy that in the world there are other realities. There are many realities happening at the same time, yet somehow it’s interconnected right? While I am here in this peaceful cosy space, I baked bread, sourced by wheat planted elsewhere. It must have been a reality in the past and still goes on elsewhere. I don’t have to go to the flour factory. I am lucky to have shortcuts in food production, and just have to shop and cook. Isn’t it a privilege?
Power of walking in the nature
The other day, I boiled down to a question from a walk with Seoyeon as dealing challenges of working with different people to prepare for Initiative Forum: how can I work with others in a way that allows myself and others to feel free, creative and joyful?
Today, after walking with Milena, always a good companion. I am so surprised and happy to hear that she feels free around me. That responded to the question I posed: how can I work and be with others that allow us to feel free? Seems that my question is finding its answers. So powerful that questions open up possibilities of knowings and meeting wishes.
We talked about the power of youth in the world. As I go to the world, I see more disconnection in everyday life, and yet more hope as I encounter these beautiful souls like Yippies. It’s been a while since I came out of my turbulent past suffocating with judgment and rules. She asked me a good question: Are you a free person? -Yes
Why do you think you are free?
I am free because
Freedom is the essence of life that make it worthwhile to live. Life’s so wonderful to discover, the world is huge to live. Freedom to travel, to express, to live and do things allows me to contribute the most, to offer my wholesomeness, to make my own decisions and choices. I’ve become free because it took me courage and practice. I could work around regulations and boundaries if there’s a purpose behind it. Otherwise, there shouldn’t be any limitations to how we should live our life.
I gathered courage because I would suffer if I didn’t take the risk to break from the system. I gained courage as I heard of Huyen Chip, a young solo traveler around the world with Couchsurfing, and other figures, and characters. I got courage as I was listening to my heart that I must do something else to develop my potential, instead of sitting useless, lost, invisible in the university hall. Once I entered the larger society, meeting so many kind strangers who have become my friends, and met people who inspired me to see the world, I was convinced that this life has so much humanity. And I did it again, to meet new people, to try new things, as training myself and finding freedom for myself. Gaining courage to be free is a practice. And I am still doing it, because of which I am here in this beautiful place in Jarna, Sweden that I feel home. That desire to be free really leads me to freedom.
Just have to make some leap that might sound stupid and risky to many people. What matters is our intuition, the best decision maker!
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