It's July 2024, and we've just finished our Pirate Voyage aboard Tilvera in the stunning nature of northern Norway. Nine days, 12 people, one boat, a few hundred miles, and two projects uniting forces: the start of a love story between Tilvera Expeditions and us, Piratas do Amor.
And because I like to mix random topics, I'll quote my dear friend and teacher of Shamanic and Conscious Sexuality, who once said:
"For a relationship to flourish, two main pillars need to exist: adventure and safety."
He was talking about romantic relationships, but I extend that to all kinds of relationships - including, and specially, work.
I believe that this is what we did during our first collaboration in Norway, creating a safe space for people to BE while experiencing all the necessary chaos that makes an adventure in the inner and outer ocean possible.
Welcome aboard.
--
Heaven is really on Earth, photo by Bruna Arcangelo
"I finally understand what Piratas do Amor is about" - said Heimir, our captain, during the closing circle.
I don't know what exactly he meant with that. But somehow, I feel the same.
I looked around, and almost everyone was crying.
Each word shared was clearly coming from the heart.
We were overflowing with love. Love for life, for nature, for animals, for ourselves, for each other, for adventures, for new friends, for belonging, for the world we live in, for the art of being present.
And if I were to summarize what our work is about, I would chose two words: love and the sea. Two immense words that could also be the tittle of one of Hemingway's novels.
So what Heimir said made me wonder: what is this really about?
Hard to describe
After six years offering journeys at sea, I must admit that, until a week ago, I was still struggling to explain what we do. Now, I understand why I was complicating something simple. Because it is not about WHAT we do, but HOW we do it, WHO does it and WHY.
It's a matter of asking the right question, before trying to find the answer.
We spent nine days stretching time and space, sailing through the stunning Lofoten archipelago above the Arctic Circle, surrounded by mind-blowing nature, some of it still very raw and untouched by humans.
There are many boats out there doing that too.
So I know that the sentence "we offer transformative experiences at sea" could just as much be the slogan of a random luxurious cruise ship.
I learned that words can mean nothing. Been there. Done that.
Working with nature is giving me the medicine I needed: first feel and act, then talk and think.
So this time, Chris and I gave one more step in HOW we facilitate this journey. Sometimes it is almost an invisible work, which was all about creating a safe space to PRACTICE and TRAIN the culture based on love that we so much like to talk about.
"Ok. What is this culture of love, for God's sake?" - you might ask
Random moments where love was always present
Let's start with: SERVICE.
On our journeys, no one is a guest, and we welcomed people just like that: everyone is crew and member of a community. Every day we rotated in all kinds of tasks. I saw Joana baking bread and Nadia cleaning the toilets, Fernanda cooking carbonara pasta and Pedro washing dishes, Christof taking care of the sprouts and Livia preparing lunch for everyone. The next day Bruna was doing the dishes, and Belén was cooking. Nadia made the coffee. I cleaned the toilets. Chris, Pedro and Renato caught the fish. Heimir made the delicious Icelandic dish Plokkfiskur.
And the list goes on and on.
Baking bread and coiling ropes. A mere example of some of our daily tasks. We don't have more photos of the cleaning or working actions... I guess it's because we were all doing something and nobody took pictures in these moments ;)
Christof commented: "I guess if I told some of my business teachers back in university that I would like to sell a trip where people have to clean toilets, they would say I am stupid".
For us, stupid is to continue replicating only the old model, where we lack experiences and spaces to practice collaboration and acts of service. Cleaning a toilet (or doing any other community task) means caring for the collective beyond personal preferences. It means sharing responsibilities in a more horizontal and decentralized way. It means valuing and respecting the act of cleaning our own sh*t, the same way we value the meal cooked or the sails that were set. Everything needs to be done by someone, and experiencing a bit of everything is crucial to create empathy and simple acts of generosity.
This is part of love.
A clean home and good food
A culture based on love also means safety.
I know that safety is a place that we mostly find within, but let's keep this conversation for another time.
Safety can and should also be provided outside, in our families, our relationships, politics and the communities we build and live with. Aboard, we tried practice that by creating a container for honest and non violent communication to happen, where people can be vulnerable and most important: authentic.
Freedom to be authentic can be explored within spaces of empathy rather than judgement, truth talks rather than gossiping, and creating solutions rather complaining.
"Our complaint box is the trash bin", we announced in the first day, by the way.
I know it can be difficult. But let's give it a try.
I come from a culture where gossips and complaining were heavily nurtured, and without even noticing, this for many years drained my energy like the Morning Glory Spilway drains water (this is the biggest drain in the world, I just found out).
We better create solutions for the challenges, transforming problems into opportunities and confronting conflicts, rather than running away from them.
Good we were on a boat. There is nowhere to run to. :)
At one of the most beautiful anchorages of our lives... no cities around, no humans, just nature and us.
Let me tell you: challenges will come. I hope they do. And in this trip, of course, they did. For each person in a different way.
"I knew it wouldn't be easy. I got seasick in the first few days, couldn't take a proper shower, and complained about the disco we had a circle where each person shared what they were feeling. I cried, vented, and shared my challenges. How magical vulnerability is, right? The community embraced me, and right there we created a connection that would last long. Being honest and letting go of my masks, helped me reconnect with my true self. By the fourth day, I was already a different person and began to see the beauty that life was offering me in that journey". Fernanda
Sharing circle: a space to talk from the heart, to be radically honest, to speak with intention and listen with attention
A lot is talked nowadays about "connecting to nature", and a lot of this talks stays exactly there: in the talking. However, if there is no real exposure to nature, experiencing both the comfort and discomfort that comes along, the body neither understands nor feels all her wisdom. Therefore, there is no integration, and we keep separating ourselves from nature.
So we didn't talk about nature. We let her guide the experience and present us with her medicine and messages.
Hiking in the Fjord of the Trolls, photo by Bruna Arcangelo
We sailed and felt the power of moving with the wind.
We hiked and received the blessings of the mountains.
We hydrated ourselves with icy cold water from the waterfalls.
We observed that:
"As above, so below. As within, so without", Hermes Trismegistus.
The most trippy view ever.
We got fascinated by the texture of moss or the smell of wildflowers.
We were mesmerized by the lion's mane jellyfish.
We were surprised by magical encounters with a fin whale, a basking shark, dolphins and puffins.
We searched for our food, and fishing became our "closest supermarket". For some, even the ones who have a vegetarian diet, this was one of the highlights. After all, killing a fish with respect, honoring life and death and being fed in such an ethical way: was a much closer connection not just to nature, but to a sustainable way of living.
Connecting. Connecting. Connecting.
Creating intimacy with nature also means to embrace impermanence (a topic I love to talk about in this blog). We had no plan nor fixed program, each day we would observe the weather, the needs and possibilities, and give the next step or sail the next mile. That, of course, taught all of us to be good observers, to let go, surrender and trust.
That reminds me of the words of Ankor, one of our dear friends that was aboard. One day he invited all of us to a beautiful island, and hosted an activity to share and practice the message he received from Thoth during his retreat in the Dark Room in Thailand. The essence of this message is about a consciousness update to a new reality based on the heart, that the world will experience from 2025 onwards. I recommend you read his text, but to summarize, if we want to live more connected with the heart, we need to learn to LET GO, SURRENDER and TRUST.
Well, a boat is a wonderful laboratory for that.
We were SO present. And then love is inevitable.
Can you find us in this picture? Sitting in a circle during the workshop of Ankor... (photo by Bruna Arcangelo)
Loving presence is what we practiced the most, contemplating and accepting what is, with the awareness that nothing is lacking. This doesn't mean being passive or ignorant, but rather creating change both internally and externally from the overflow of our completeness and oneness, instead of trying to change what we project based on our perceived lack.
This is also what Tilvera means in Icelandic: existence. To be.
"Time to be. Not more to become" - said Ankor.
Besides Ankor, many others offer some of their gifts to the community.
Joana guided a morning yoga lesson.
Belén taught us about jellyfishes, copepods and whales.
Livia shared with us the Japanese tradition of teru teru bozu, the hadmade paper dolls that attract good weather (it really worked during our nine days together).
Renato played some of his music as a Dj during our barbecue and bonfire on the remote island.
And more.
Spaces for sharing gifts
Our gift is our expression. May it be a workshop or a massage, a smile or a hug, a word of appreciation or genuine silence.
This is also love.
And we did that too.
"I left the boat on the last day bursting with love. I was very happy and filled with love. I turned on my phone and started sending messages to a bunch of people I love, randomly. It was a very deep feeling that I hadn't felt in a long time. I then began to reflect: why was I feeling that way? What elements had been present in the last few days for me to feel that much love? It had been a very, very long time since I truly stayed in the present moment. I was always worried about other things, about my schedule, what I needed to show others, what I needed to improve about myself. And during the Pirate Voyage I didn't miss anything. I didn't feel the anxiety of wanting to be somewhere else nor had the urgency to do something else. I was living each second with presence. This sequence of days acting this way generated an inexplicable feeling of abundance and love. I think I had never felt this way before." Joana
Each one of us.
By the end of the trip, Christof wisely said: "On the first day, we told you we would take you on a journey aboard this ship to practice a set of values that we call our Pirate Code, but we never mentioned what these vales are. Now, after living them day by day, we all know them. Our bodies have experienced what no theory can explain, and back on land, we can all spread this seeds of love into our lives".
We once envisioned in 2018 that a sailboat would be the most radical laboratory for personal development, community living and reconnection to nature. A place to rewild ourselves and navigate towards new horizons of life.
This vision keeps proving to be true.
Dream team: ocean family!
Now, we are beyond happy that we found crazy partners in crime, Belén and Heimir, and their home Tilvera, to make this happen. A team of explorers, sailors, ocean & human lovers.
Ready to unite forcers to offer transformative expeditions at sea, not with empty words, but full of love in all details to support the transition to a new paradigm of life on Earth.
Are you ready to embark on the next adventure with us?
Tip about the destination: somewhere magical in South America... ;)
Cheers for this unforgetable journey!
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