For a moment the war ceased to exist

April 25: We’ve been in Crete one full day. Wow. 

Just walking to breakfast was so amazing. My body felt so deeply relaxed and free from all pressure. All around me were beautiful wildflowers - yellow, red, purple - and beyond them (on one side) the blue of the sky meeting the blue of the sea, and (on the other side) mountains. Butterflies fluttering around. A few people pass and say “kalimera” - Greek for good morning, but literally beautiful morning. 

I kept pausing to take photos hoping that somehow they would convey the body feeling of peace and ease that being here gives me. When I took this photo, I pictured you sitting on the bench gazing out at the line where the sea meets the sky. 

When I took this next picture I hoped you would feel the same relaxing of all the little muscles behind your eyes and in your gut that I feel when I gaze on all those different shades and transparencies of the blue of the sea. 

We’re on the south coast of Crete - out in the middle of the Mediterranean, almost as close to Turkey as to Greece, almost as close to Africa (Libya/Egypt) as to Europe. Culturally this little island has absorbed a lot of different influences and that is part of what makes it so unique. This makes me think of Patrick Leigh Fermor, a favorite backpacker/travel writer of Chris and mine, who wrote about his war experience leading a special forces abduction of a Nazi general in Crete. He wrote about connecting unexpectedly with this enemy through their shared appreciation of the beauty of the landscape around them, and of classical poetry. If you have the time and curiosity to follow this detour, I think you might enjoy it. 

For a Long Moment, the War Ceased to Exist | Cape Rebel

Chris pointed out that the beach where the abducted officer was transferred to a ship is near where we are staying. I’d love to go there but doubt if I will. So fun to just be here and not bother with doing. There is also a cave that claims to be the actual location of Homer’s story of Odysses putting out the Cyclops eye. (How a fictional event can have an actual location eludes me but I LOVE blurring the line between imagination and reality.) when we were in Sicily we visited the actual beach where Odysseus and his men sailed away after their escape from the blinded cyclops (where Odysseus could not resist shouting back to the cyclops and boasting who he was and so brought a  boulder thrown by the cyclops that barely missed their ship). I’d also love to visit that cave and I find myself giggling at the idea that the boulder was thrown from a cave in Crete down to a shore in Sicily. 

Back to the “actual” Crete with Chris and River in 2022, we I have mostly strolled around, remembered previous vacations here (this is our fifth visit), noticed what was the same and what had changed (our last visit was 2015), read, ate, shopped for groceries, and of course walked the 200 or so steps from our apartment to the beach where I dipped into the sea. I expected it to be cold but it really wasn’t. I hadn’t brought a swimsuit, didn’t think it would be warm enough to swim but I was wrong. Chris suggested I just use my black bra and black pantries and we both realized by the time I went in that nudity was the norm in the beach and that, in my underwear, I was conspicuously overdressed. 

April 28. The days pass here so quietly. We are doing less in the way of ambitious hikes than in former years, more relaxing and reading or napping, and exploring different tavernas. We have had delicious stuffed tomatoes and amazingly delicious fresh artichoke hearts with potatoes sautéed in a divine blend of lemon and oil. 

We did yesterday visit Imbros Gorge, the less famous and crowded (and more accessible) of the two gorges (the other is Samaria Gorge) that are major tourist destinations here. We had planned to hike up and then back down the gorge  but were surprised by how exhausted we were by the heat, by the number of people we had to maneuver around, and by the many loose rocks, big and small, that demanded our constant attention as we walked. In fact I didn’t get much chance to enjoy the beauty around us or to relay it to you. 

When we got to the top we decided to skip the hike down (which would have been hotter, more crowded, and way more precarious) and got to share a taxi with two ambitious Austrians who decided to hike up the gorge twice. We were also disappointed that the dramatic black dragon ladies were not in bloom, but delighted to discover one right here in our own neighborhood on what we thought might be a long hike today but which we also shortened because of the heat. 

Returning here after seven years really make us realize we are not as young as we used to be. And yet I think I enjoy our new slower and more deeply relaxed way of enjoying is a kind of “introduction” to a beautiful aspect of aging in which less is “actually” more. 

Thank you with all my heart for walking with us. I hope you are getting some hint of deep rest and I hope you will join us here in Crete again in a few days.