This is not
a story:
It's me,
my project,
it's ViVI
When I was a boy I wanted to be a footballer, so I decided to enroll in the most important, and the only one, football school in my town. I trained a lot, but my coach was more interested in telling jokes than letting me play, so I eventually gave up.
Luckily, I did learn some valuable skills, like being able to run 100 meters in just over 12 seconds, which still comes in handy today when my monkey throws me into dangerous situations. The good thing is that while I was training, I was already thinking about another dream: becoming a pilot. Apart from a few tentative attempts to enroll in a flying school, I always found the excuse that the cost was too high, and besides, it was so much fun to travel with my head in the clouds. But, as Pan said, only those who dream can fly.
This is just to say that we can sometimes feel anchored, lost in our thoughts and unable to move forward: we drag the weight of our past or our future when we should be striving to live in the present.
So if you have an idea for a project, a person, a vision of what your life could be like in a few years, well, don’t make excuses or daydream, do something about it: most of the time you’ll be told no if you ask, you’ll be thrown out if you knock, and you’ll probably end up running away from what you love, but don’t worry: all you need is faith, trust and a little fairy dust.
Don’t run away
One day, while editing a video and printing 3D objects, I felt a sense of void inside me. There was a dissatisfaction that I could not explain. I felt that something was missing, something deeper.
So I began my quest, immersing myself in books and enrolling in personal growth courses, eager to discover new insights and learn more and more about myself.
I also discovered the existence of multipotentials, people who have many passions and interests at the same time. I realised that there was nothing wrong with pursuing many paths rather than focusing on one. This realisation freed me from any sense of guilt or frustration.
So, between one thing and another, I decided to create my own website. I contacted Aruba to register the domain, and while searching for a meaningful name, I had a lighting. I took the initials of my names and came up with ‘VIVI’ that means to live in italian: It seemed perfect for my purpose.
Then the server suggested the extension .cloud, which is very popular with start-ups with an innovative vision. I didn’t think twice and went for it.
This is how vivi.cloud was born. It seems as eternal as when the spark strikes and we experience the fullness of the feeling of love.
It is something wonderful. It makes us feel more alive and we experience a personal revolution.
Love born eternal
That spark alone is not enough, you have to nurture it. It is a bit like building a soul mate. Once you meet them, you have to learn to be the best version of yourself.
So I immersed myself in editing the site. I spend time on it every day, adding form and content. I experiment, I try different approaches, I make mistakes: I do not have all the knowledge one would need. It is a long and exciting process, but every minute is worth it. I am driven by a deep desire to learn and to improve my ability to deal with new things.
I don’t want to teach you anything, only encourage you to experiment and put yourself out there.
You are attempting to form new habits. You are attempting a new way of life. That will need time and persistence and daily application.
There are no hard and fast rules. Everyone has a unique story to tell. For me it is a process of discovery and learning.
For example, writing the blog makes me realise the power of words. Words can reflect our values, our experiences and what makes us feel alive. Choosing the right words is like working with the chemistry of the soul. The wrong words can intoxicate us, while the right words heal us.
Choose your words
I began to realise that I’m breaking out of the gilded cage of routine. But I want to do it in comfort in order to to maximise productivity without stress.
I try my best and see what happens. Like an angel chasing his star to the ends of the earth: he doesn’t know if he’ll ever catch it and I want to find out where this journey will take me.
I think of a motto and it immediately comes to mind: IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE, TO GO FREE.
Change is inevitable. It happens when the desire to change is stronger than the desire to stay the same.
It is about breaking the anchors, those patterns that have been imprinted on our minds by our past experiences It is a choice. We can also choose not to, but we have to be aware of it. It is certainly never too late and of course we can. If this seems impossible, start by digging deep within yourself, perhaps asking yourself what the real reasons are that make you stay in a certain situation or behave in a certain way.
As far as freedom is concerned, I mean free from emotions and feelings. Free to welcome whatever feelings come, pleasant or unpleasant, without running away. To be more than who you want to be, to simply be who you are meant to be.
Become yourself
Every morning I walk 5km around my house in the countryside to keep fit. The road is the same as always, as is my surroundings. But the colours, the smells… they are different every time. Nature is both static and dynamic.
This remind me that nothing is so certain that it cannot be changed, and nothing is so changeable that it cannot be fixed.
The famous Taoist symbols of yin and yang perfectly illustrate this concept. Two opposing principles, feminine and masculine, chaos and order, and at their boundary is the way of being right.
In Matthew 7:14: “For strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it”. But too find it, we have to walk the tightrope between order and chaos. We have to stop manoeuvring, calculating, scheming, coercing, demanding, avoiding, ignoring and punishing. We have to put aside your old strategies and realise that it is time to pay attention like never before.
We have to know our personal hell and decide not to descend into it and not to create it. We have to aim for something else: we must follow our dream: that dream that shines in the dark places where reason itself gropes.
As the Queen of Hearts says in Alice in Wonderland, ‘you must run as far as you can to stay in the same place’.
Pay attention in running
We can’t be definied; we all have our own personalities and should protect them. And we need to know all emotions to choose which one to prefer and be free.
It’s only when we’ve experienced sadness that we can truly be happy. It’s only when we’ve faced hate that we can truly love.
And the only way to be aware of is by listening to the pain that’s inside us, all the way through.
One of the best ways to do that is through the traumas that
will show up in our lives. It is in those moments that a door is thrown wide open, the door to our own hell. We should enter it like Dante, with courage and grace.
And we should then navigate, not on a straight line as for the Christian world, nor even on a circle as the Buddhists say, but I believe on an oval, indefinite but at the same time unique, with more and more awareness and acceptance of what we are.
We are the oval. We are within the oval. We are the multiplicity in unity.
It will be the logo of the winners, winners over things, over the environment, over themselves.
But to win, we must find our why and become dangerous enough, to challenge evil in its lair while we still remain in comfort.
We must face chaos and turn it into order, or take the old order, reduce it to chaos and make it productive again.
As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “Man can be stronger than the fate imposed on him from without”.
TO BE CONTINUED…
and you, what would you do if you weren’t afraid?