YOU DON'T LET GO

After a really shaky start from Kastrup where the gusts of the storm tore and threw the plane like a swampy ball against a wall for a good while, everything calmed down and I dozed off against the plane window. The woman next to me sat and tossed her long hair around, back and forth so it ended up in my face time and time again. She didn't seem to notice her behavior and I sat quietly. Perhaps she was unnerved by the capriciousness of the weather.

I got up early yesterday morning to get some of the day's work done before I had breakfast at a very good friend's house in Malmö on my way to Kastrup. It's strange that work tends to pile up on the day I have to leave. Each time. Or maybe it's the case that I always have a lot on "my plate" but that I don't think about it in everyday life. Everything was efficiently cleaned and I got into the car on time.

Now I have almost spent a year in the village, which I literally love. Even the worst summer heat didn't scare me away. Possibly the horse-sized black mosquitoes were somewhat annoying, but certainly not enough to put my legs on my back.

I've gotten good at letting the village heal me. So many cracks and stinging wounds from the years gone by in my insides, which have now slowly joined together at the edges. I've gotten good at letting myself take up space. It has never been a matter of course. Maybe it's the age after all. At some point you have to grow up, I think quietly and smile.

We at Reunion are developing a new way of doing business in the new world where crises are commonplace. You have to be strong. You have to be convinced that it is possible to get through things that few people can handle. Developing approaches that work together with hard work and technology, that is the future for us. And it's already here.

I read about many who give up. But I also read about even more people who bet. Who take on the challenge of running their business in ups and downs. Like the waves on the sea. You lighten the sails when needed and you hoist them for full speed ahead (eh, I don't know anything about sailing hahaha, you see, right...) But you don't let go. Days and nights become one and you focus. This is exactly what our lab work is all about. Finding the way forward. The lab band is like an exciting novel, chapter after chapter we follow the adventure. Running a successful business is an adventure. You bet exactly everything you own and have and then you drive. I have been driving now for almost 21 years!

I sat out last night, with my good friend Jonni and ate the food they cook from scratch in his restaurant. Maybe one of the last evenings to enjoy the outdoors, says Jonni. Next week it will rain. We enjoy in the present. I enjoy seeing some of my Italian broker friends having dinner with the family, the children are included. They laugh and take selfies. Three generations of women.

Measured like a swaying eagle, I fought my way across the small village street to my lair. Pasta with freshly picked mushrooms from the forests, a bruschetta with pomodoro (tomato) lay and pushed the stomach in all directions  - Jonni knows that I prefer to eat vegetarian. When I got up, I opened my windows in all directions. The cool breeze from the hills eased my breathing and I fell fast asleep to the safe living sounds of my little village.