Crete

A Sense of Possibility

Exopoli, Crete. GR.

35.373075, 24.242773

Meditation at the church with the bench I like. It’s an easy practice: I just close my eyes and listen. Nothing more than that. I do it for as long as it makes me happy, and then go about my day.

Out the front door and through the black gate, past the ruins and little white chapel, left at the taverna, down the switchbacks and Crete-themed villas (“Zeus’ Cave”), shortcut through the olive grove, left at the fig trees, over the bridge and into town, left at Port Cafe, past the docks, down the steps and into the sand.

Georgioupoli, Crete. GR.

35.362553, 24.262963

The first swim fills me with a sudden lift and rush of certainty: I’m meant to be here. As much as I’d like to believe my habits are built entirely from discipline and willpower, “place” participates in my behavior too. The environment shapes what feels natural to me - and right now, I need exactly what this island has to offer.

Clarity. Inventiveness. Endurance.

They’re easier to access here. Why?

The Cretan world has been rehearsing these qualities for millennia:

“Positioned between three continents, Crete has attracted wave after wave of conquerors: Romans, Arabs, Venetians, Ottomans, the Third Reich. Over centuries of repeated invasion, its people learned that survival depended less on overpowering the enemy than on outlasting - and often outwitting - them.”

Resilience and ingenuity, practiced across generations, settled into a kind of baseline temperament, and that temperament is the moral atmosphere I now live in. The land lends me its spirit and summons up an ancient Greek challenge:

How much wisdom, imagination and energy can you tap into at a moment’s notice?

Anogia, Crete. GR.

35.288897, 24.881265

Mantinada for PLF:

“With patience first and patience last,

and doggedness all through,

a man can think the wildest thoughts,

and make them all come true.”

Nikos’ Rizitika:

“My wild creatures,

my little wild ones,

where are your lands?

The cliffs are our home

and the caves of the mountains.”

Kedrodasos, Crete. GR.

35.2691660, 23.5609293

The mid-afternoon sun finds me hiding under a prickly juniper. From here, I watch it flash across the water and break the surface into thousands of tiny points of light. For several seconds, I let myself get lost in the shimmer.

The Aegean restores my sense of possibility. Here, a little passion and a little nerve seem enough to begin. The Cretans have an abundance of both, and I feel some of it rubbing off.

Time with them has taught me more about self-respect than highlighting another bestseller ever could. They speak directly, don’t rush to please, and take a fierce (slightly mad) pride in doing things their own way.

They’ll help you generously, but not submissively. They’ll feed you, argue with you, ignore your timetable, pour another raki, and tell you exactly what they think. Beneath it all is an unshakable permission to exist without apology.

My prayer is this: Please God let me keep finding places where people are unimpressed by me. Let me misunderstand the customs, get corrected without ceremony, sit through many inconvenient exchanges, and slowly remember that I too can live unbothered in my own direction.

Argyromouri, Crete. GR.

35.373841, 24.250897

If nothing else, I’m settling into being natural. The effort continues, but without the weight behind it. My new aim is a sincerity that is consistent - an honesty that is always at ease.

“No false notes.” Very rare.