Suyin Aerts
October 7, 2022

The escape

Last week I was on a trip with 25 other women in Marrakech. We had so much fun and we were overwhelmed with the beauty, the differences and all the other impressions from the Medina to the Atlas mountains. Dancing around an Iphone, eating Tajine, women visiting our fantastic apartment in the desert while I was walking around naked to get ready for a shower in the candle lights as electricity was not around….

Many things that made us laugh…other things that made us anxious.

During a ride with our bikes true the Medina, I got stuck between honking cars, bikes filled with mint, motorcycles carrying the mother on the back and the baby in the front, fully loaded trucks, old men carrying dead chicken by the head, piles of herbs in colors going from yellow, orange to red, women taking their bread to be baked, children with school aprons, pink for the girls, blue for the boys.

As a curious person I decided to look around and wait for my turn to cross the street…

I did not notice that my guide and group turned right and I continued straight ahead( the number one rule when we are mountainbiking, you never turn without waiting for the next person)

I continued straight, wondering if it was really that long that I was waiting behind that big truck, …

I decided to embrace the uncertainty and breathe the Marrakech air.

I might be a rebel but when you rebel against uncertainty, you feed anxiety.

By embracing this uncertainty it felt like accepting that the future is outside of your control.

And honestly: it felt like a good thing.

Even though sometimes uncertainty scares us, and we mistakenly believe that holding on to control is the answer. It isn’t.

Uncertainty takes you places you would not go if you would control every second of your life.

It was a feeling of freedom biking alone on my probably fifth hand bike, far too small for me, dressed entirely in pink with a red helmet…I understood that the eyes were following this funny lady because of the look.

What I did not realize is that I was really going where one should not go.

After about 10 minutes the guide came after me: “you escaped! ” he shouted and he was so happy he found me, which wasn’t so difficult, I just went straight until I hit the wall at the end of the Medina. So I decided to stop. He was happy he found me, and I didn't even know I was lost.

Sometimes when I dress in pink : ‘je vois la vie en rose”

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