MYSTERY, THERAPY, AND MARTIJN DOOLAARD

 

A series of essays….

“THERE’S A CERTAIN ‘LIVING PAINTING’ ROMANTICISM
TO THE ENTIRE ENDEAVOUR.”
MARTIJN STANDING NEAR HIS GARDEN AT HIS HOMESTEAD
WITH THE TWO STONE CABINS IN THE BACKGROUND

Courtesy Sharp Magazine

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Plunging right into the deep end, I will admit that daily life has felt like a burden for me, lately. Carrying my emotions on my shoulders has taken its toll, taken me along a path I dislike trekking down, if I can possibly help it. When you don’t feel as though you have any control over your life, the mind wonders, the soul responds, and life, suddenly, reacts in mysterious ways by taking you on a trip into the unknown.

Sometimes even small, daily tasks become a struggle. There is always more beneath the surface than you know; waiting to be extracted, tampered with, and teased. 

Admittedly, this unpredictable journey has been a powerfully good ride this time around. Mark my surprise because, generally, this isn’t the case. While entering the dark tunnel of sadness and confusion, I discovered a man named Martijn Doolaard. Have you heard of Martijn? Each time I dig a little deeper into his current story, I find out new and captivating aspects of his life that engage the storyteller instincts within me and season my life with joy and happiness. What a truly fascinating character he is!

First of all, may I say how much I enjoy having YouTube in my life? Never a dull moment with YouTube at your fingertips! That’s exactly where I went and there I found Martijn, high atop a mountain in the Italian Alps, just south of Turin near the French border, strategizing about his restoration of two hundred-year-old stone cabins on a few acres of land that he’d recently purchased.

VIEW OF THE ITALIAN ALPS FROM
BETWEEN THE CABINS

Courtesy Sharp Magazine

Around a year ago, he devised a two year course of action which included doing most of the work by himself. Following his heart, as well as every rule and legal description handed down by the Italian government, Martijn began recording his progress and sharing it with us via YouTube. Sharp Magazine accurately described Martijn Doolaard and his self-sustaining lifestyle in the Italian Alps in an article written back on October 11, 2022:

In practice, homesteading promises self-reliance, a disconnection from the modern world and the traps of day-to-day life. “I think my travelling ignited this. In all the amazing places where I had set up camp for only one night, I thought, ‘how would it be to live in such a place?’. I’d met a lot of people interested in permaculture, exploring new ways of living, combining some parts of a peasant life with modern-day comforts, all while staying connected,” Doolaard explains.

Doolaard is a Dutch photographer, graphic designer, cyclist, and travel writer. Born in 1966, he grew up in a small town in the Netherlands where fishing and camping holidays with his three brothers formed the inspiration for his current outdoor life. At the age of 57, he has brilliantly marked a life of extreme natural beauty, solitude, and modern ingenuity. 

Martijn’s slow, methodical approach to restoring the two stone structures has been compared to ‘watching paint dry’ by several YouTube fans, but in a good way. Every movement is slow, methodical, ceremonious, and purposeful. His quiet, gentle work has been described as ‘Visual Poetry.’

PLANTING HIS FIRST GARDEN

Courtesy Sharp Magazine

Damn, if this display of contentment, hard work, and joy didn’t open up the flood gates of abundance deep down inside of me, at a time I most needed it! As Martijn began to master what was before him within each passing day while surrounded by nature’s beauty, his journey left a deep impression on me and made me want to know more and more. 

Martijn’s talents leads the viewer into his world with a gentle caress and dreamlike meditation that envelopes the mind and the senses with floating clouds, mountain hikes, abandoned villages, and a neighboring Catholic priest saying mass each week online.

Don’t be fooled. Slow, simple living is about finding the joy and happiness in the most mundane moments. It’s about carving out pockets of time to do things that make you happy. These are the rules employed by this soft-spoken man making a life for himself high up on an Italian mountainside. 

MARTIJN BREAKING BREAD WITH FIVE
TRAVELERS FROM ALABAMA
WHO SET OUT TO OFFER HIM SOME HELP

Courtesy Sharp Magazine

So, we make a great effort to apply these (if not, similar) principles within our own lives, struggling to be true to ourselves while absorbing the collectivity of moral and ethical standards; decisions based on truth rather than expediency.At the same time, we must acknowledge that feeling a whole range of emotions is not only normal, but healthy; learning that everyone has their ups and downs no matter how good the mask they wear on the outside may be.

Observing Martijn clear the land, plant a garden, bake bread, build an off the grid solar panel and battery powered electrical system, source clear, refreshing mountain water to live on, and then drop everything in order to take a hike up to the highest peak or speak with his neighbors on a sunny afternoon, brings me such joy. As the clouds roll into the valley and softly obscure the mountains beyond, I close my eyes and dream about the feeling of Zen that Martijn Doolaard brings into my life and I am very, very grateful. 

Watching him break bread with visitors and live a natural life of freedom and purpose, I have found his personal documentary my new source for meditation. Everything he does is like a reverential ceremony. His tall, lanky, Lincolnesque appeal is forthright and charmingly calming. I really can’t remember what drew me to Martijn on YouTube in the first place, especially at a time when I needed something like him the most. I am thankful that I did. Life often works in truly mysterious ways.

Courtesy Sharp Magazine

Copyright © 2023 by Jacqueline E Hughes

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