Finding My Quiet Place in the World – Surrounded by Thousands of People
My quiet place is a strange one, because for many it’s not quiet at all.
I mentioned in a recent post I went to my first Dutch eredivisie football match a couple of weeks ago. Within minutes, despite my stress about going, I felt at home.
Football Fan
In a previous life, before I moved to the Netherlands, I was a season ticket holder at Vicarage Road, home of Watford football club. I had been a regular on the terrace watching The Hornets since I was seven years old. I’m not going to help you with the maths but I can assure you I spent many a year cheering on my local club.
At first I went with my mum, dad and brother but over the years the rest of my family moved away from Watford and I continued to occupy a seat in the Vicarage Road stadium. More often than not I went alone. In the same seat, in the same place on the terraces, every other week for a couple of years.
And then I moved to the Netherlands. I have been to only a handful of Watford matches since I departed English shores and even fewer matches involving Dutch teams.
At Home on a Football Terrace
Until a few weeks ago when I took my two eldest sons to see our local team. It felt like coming home. It was a strange feeling.
There is something about the buzz of a football stadium. Something amazing about supporting a football team in unison with thousands of people around you.
There is something about being totally immersed in the thrill of a football match, in the winning and losing. Something about closing yourself off to the world around you.
There is something about being in that moment, a moment where only the football matters.
And above all. there is something wonderful about finding a quiet place to sit and lose yourself whilst being surrounded by thousands of other people. How amazing it is to find silence in your mind whilst surrounded by an intense wall of noise. I re-discovered my place to just be.
I was surprised to realise how much I had missed being on the football terraces. And I was even more surprised to realise why.
Over to You
Where is your quiet place? Where can you lose yourself and forget about the world around you?
My quiet place is everywhere where I can “dive in”. It doesn’t matter where I am – when I am fully in a certain activity or just in pure silence on my sofa – this is my quiet place where I gain strength.
This could be:
– the process of solving an issue at work
– having a good time with my friend(s)
– being in nature
– sitting on top of a mountain and enjoying the nice view
– attending a concert with my favourite music
– …
– playing with kids/children
– observing animals
–> but everything with 100% focus on that activity – hilarious!!!
– and now don’t laugh: observing the first 5 minutes the washing mashine after having started it –> this is no joke – and of course, I am doing this not very often, but sometimes it is just relaxing to see how the water comes in and the foam is coming up ;-)))
Ha! Totally get the washing machine starting up thing ?