Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25122
TEXT + PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS BENA A few years ago I decided to live on a small island for a while. I wanted to experience living a simple life, living close to nature. The tiny island of Dravuni in Fiji provided exactly what I was looking for. My days were spent swimming, walking, doing daily chores and hanging out with a local guy I'd met. One day, as we sat near the sea, I asked him what he was thinking about. "Nothing," he replied. "What do you mean? You must be thinking about something?" I said. He laughed. "My mind is blank. I'm not thinking about anything." .---___ .... 1 sat quiet for a minute, thinking about what it would be like to think about nothing. Thousands of miles away from my home, living on a tropical island so small I could walk round it in an hour and I still wasn't able to keep my mind from running on autopilot ... What am I going to do when I return to the States? Where am I going to live? What do I really want to do with my life? answers, just more questions. I stared out at the blue water, paradise found. I turned to my fri·end and asked, "Don't u ever get bored? Don't you ever want to go to the mainland to see what it's like, maybe meet some new people?" "I've been to the city, but in the city everybody is trying to be like everybody else. Here I just be myself," he answered. I looked out at the ocean again, thinking about the seminars they offer in LA to teach e how to empty their minds. Here was a guy, only 17 years old, doing naturally people in the industrialized world need to be taught. He looked up from the coconut, smiled and offered me a piece.