Beautiful S’arraco. This is a place where dreams and imagination collide as old cobblestones sing under the summer heat and the vines from wine plants spiral up and around old wells opposite a monastery that is hundreds of years old. In this city there was such a wonderful buzz of community life, living and vivacity.

I actually came to this city primarily for the markets – with the secondary intention of seeing something new. It had been days of hard work before this while I was still adjusting to the heat, and getting out and about in the local surrounds was such a good decision at the time! If you time the busses right in Mallorca, anything becomes possible!

I remember walking around a old corner of warm stones and looking into this lively square full of people buying their fresh foods for the week. There was cheese, fruits, vegetables… so much good food! I bought way too much fruit from over-excitement at seeing such beautiful produce. My favourite were these flat peaches. I had seen them before in France and Germany but not like this where they were oh so fresh!

After all of this excitement I went home and worked so well that evening. There was so much to think about – how this interaction with the world, even when you can’t at all speak the language (French and English did not help in understanding any Spanish… should learn a little more before returning next time) – this movement amongst a people and place that has different rhythms to what we are used to can really affect the ways in which we work in a really positive way. It is something I have remembered and really try to apply to my work life now. Each day on this planet is different and I always try to find a little quirk sticking out that wasn’t that way when I last saw a familiar place. To have open eyes whether the situation is new or familiar.

I returned to S’arraco and the surrounding water springs a few times during my residency. It really is such a magical area of the world and one that has made a really lasting impression on the way I interact with new places and people. Some of the old places we saw in the mountains had pieces of buildings and society from so many years ago. One afternoon struck me particularly strongly as I was filling up some water from a freshwater spring, sitting on an old carved rock. The person I was with at the time told me a little history about this place, the forest, the buildings… and I became aware that generations of women had sat here in stillness, listening to the sounds of the hills and filling up their own water carriers just as I was doing. These interactions with time can be really powerful, to feel a pull on the vertical aspects just as strongly as our own linear projections through time… it was really cool (also slightly nerdy).

I loved S’arraco – the people, the atmosphere… everything. This region of Mallorca is definitely a place worth visiting and somewhere that is worth taking a little time in. A great part of the charm is settling into the rhythms that occur naturally – the hum of the hillside, birdsongs in the forest, the way the light moves through the streets as the day begins to close. So much to see about the self and the way we fit into our surrounds.

S’arraco, Mallorca: June-July 2016