Nevertheless, I can tell about some things that bring calmness into my life: doing something for pleasure: no clock, no rush, no rules. Pure enjoyment, a relaxed stroll with no particular destination, looking around with beginner eyes, reading a good book, letting ourselves into the story the author wanted to tell, listening to good music (whatever is your definition of it), meditate, sharing time with your loved ones, sleeping with no alarm clocks in sight, eating good home-made food…

I could go on forever but instead, I invite you all to join me for a stroll in one of my favorite spots. A place that, despite being near my house, always surprises and reminds me gently that civilization and technology are not the most important things in life. The old man that walks in front of me for some time remembered me about one episode of “The Walking Man”, my favorite book from Jiro Taniguchi.

Some weeks ago, I added a new power kite to my collection. This time I chose a 3.2 sq. mts HQ Invento NPW5. I´ve always wondered about how a kite will behave without having “wind slots”, like the regular power kites I´ve flown before, and searching for a while, I found a real bargain on eBay. Some time ago, I had the chance to briefly test it, thanks to a fellow kiter that lent me a home-made one.

I flew it for the first time some days ago and It´s a lot of fun. It´s very compact (the bag is only 40 cms long) and it can be ready to fly in a couple of minutes, unlike the Revolution and Acrobatic ones, that require more time to assemble. The sail area is quite generous in this model, and you must be careful if you don´t want the kite to scare the hell out of you with strong winds!!! It´s not designed to jump, but it can be used with a buggy, a mountain board or kite skates.

The kite flies with little or no wind, which makes it ideal for those calm and slow days. It has a speed range from 1 to 6 Bf.

One detail to have into account is that the power and brake lines have different lengths, and in my first attempt, I set them up wrong. The kite flew but behaving nervously, with a lot of “wrinkles”. When I realized that I have installed the lines in reverse order, I corrected them and the kite flew much better. 

The only downside (so far) is that you have to be careful with the lines and bridles when folding the kite, since they tend to tangle easily.

In general, I recommend this kite to everybody wanting to have fun without much fuss, but for those beginning in the sport, the 2.5 sq. mts version is better to avoid unexpected behavior with strong winds.

Let me explain: this society is clearly slanted towards the “doers”, and the people that doesn´t comply with this, is separated and by all means “invited” to “get back on track” as soon as possible. Now I´m living proof that the compulsive “do it” behavior kills creativity and our basic emotions. It seems that putting all kind of things in our life makes us feel secure, with something to hang to avoid losing course and to comply with all that is expected from us.

And so it continues. Our life is bloated with “must do´s” to be able to demonstrate others and ourselves that we´re are good citizens contributing to the whole society´s well-being, thinking that work is the essential form to fulfill our desires and reach happiness, but at the same time, forgetting the most important things: those that we love and make us feel motivated. We avoid being idle at all costs, but paradoxically, we´re always longing for that spare time to change gears and relax.

But, once we have that time at our disposal, we don´t know what to do with it and we start to get mad. Even some people says “I know you, and soon you´ll be begging to return to the crazy work world you´re ranting about now”. The worst thing is that many times we give up too early to the comfort of the routine and waste the chance to discover what really is the spare time and how to stop completely, allowing our minds to find again the correct track, and we return once again to the rat race we were just leaving behind, asking ourselves why are we more tired every day.

I have good and bad news. Good news is that IT IS possible to have free time and enjoy it, without being intoxicated with all the things that we´re supposed to do in this kind of situation, but taking our time to find out that many times we simply don´t want to do anything, without feeling guilty, as a way to realize what motivates us. Bad news is that the process is not easy, and requires huge amounts of patience and time, but the final outcome is worth it.

Most of you will be amazed when you discover that the fundamental things really needed to live a happy life are very few, and the rest can be left behind with no regrets.

Are you ready to take a deep look inside and have some free time now?