Leaving the House in the Park

Day ten, Italy, morning. I am leaving the Casa nel Parco. Every extra day here would make the leaving harder, and I can feel it already.

Life is simpler up here and closer to the ground. Nobody expects anything of anybody.

Julian Jaschinger is staying on. He is a nutritionist and a writer, and he is using the quiet of the place to work on his book. He is getting married soon. „Life starts where you're vulnerable,“ he says.

We talk about the experiences that made us into whoever we are now, the good ones and the other kind. Everyone here seems to be on the way somewhere.

„A journey outward is a fine thing and it can be fun,“ Julian says. „But you only get free on the inside by going there.“

I like talking to him. I like the way the guests here move around each other. Every day people arrive and leave: an American with his Italian girlfriend, an eighteen-year-old from England, a couple from Germany.

„What's your book called?“ I ask him. He won't say. He won't say what it's about either.

Off into the mountains. Wish me luck.