As gifted as Fransson was as a skier and mountaineer, it was hardly his only forte. He was well-spoken and had a talent for conveying his thoughts through the written word. On his website, andreasfransson.se, he posted regular entries reflecting upon his adventures and the lessons he was learning along the way. In his final blog post, dated February 13, 2014, Fransson wrote about embracing life and dealing with the challenges presented along the way. This is just one example of Fransson’s eloquent writing and while the pertinence of the message is somewhat eery, the important thing is that we can all learn from this man, whether it be how to move efficiently and carefully in the mountains, or how to cope with the greatest unknown—death itself. – Henrik Lampert

The Beauty of Choice and the Depth of Now

by Andreas Fransson

Word after word, situation after situation and feeling after feeling – life goes on like a continuous wave that we can be on top of, under or behind.

I have been writing loads of words this autumn, but I have felt that they (the words) have been for me alone. Isolation from distraction seems like the best healer for my soul, and just letting the words come and the situations happen appears to stitch up the tiredness and those indefinable pieces of my soul that broke this autumn.

Yoga by the rivers of mother Ganges, Canadian and Japanese powder, family holidays, guide courses and an everyday mountain life around the Chamonix Mountains – I feel good now.

I don’t want to dwell, nor do I want to teach. I just have a few tiny concepts that I’ve learned or maybe relearned these last months. They have been growing on the side of my thought stream just like moss grows on the old murky logs next to a forest trail.

We have to get on with our lives whatever happens. It sounds so definite, and sometimes we want to respect others by choosing to feel bad, but that is a choice, nothing more and nothing less.

I have during many parts of my life been in incredible pain, and even though I scream like a newborn baby, I just have to deal with it. There is nowhere to hide and after a period of screaming the pain seems to fade away to the outskirts of attention and instead comes a peaceful space of nothingness upon this world. It’s like another level being glued upon this one. Pain can actually make us travel worlds in an instant. The point is no hippie crap (don’t worry, I love hippies), it’s pure subjective science, if in doubt, try it. My point got pushed aside a bit here, because what I’ve learned is that whatever happens we will deal with it.

And usually how we deal with it, how we feel and what we think about it is a choice we can learn to make (although the cause and effect is in the reverse order).

The second thing I’ve learned is that: where we are at this moment is the deepest and most sophisticated, beautiful and incredible place where we can be. We can try to search escapism, and when we are daydreaming, then that’s fine, but where we are is amazing. And if it isn’t, then change the opinion or the situation, both are most often extremely doable.

You can choose to see a friend’s death as something tragic or something beautiful. You can choose to believe what you like on what happens after death. You can choose to create whichever reality you like. So then create a reality that you like!

We create whatever we want and we are totally free to do so. You are free to believe and think whatever you want about this short text. But it would be comically stupid if you created some negative thoughts around it.

An interesting thing to think about is: If it happens to be so that we are able to create our own reality, then the person that believes so and the person that doesn’t are both right.

During a traumatic experience crystals of life within get crushed and we need to heal. The words used are only lights to lead the way, but the message is subjectively true. We need to rest, we need friends and we need love.

Then comes the dealing with thoughts and creation, and that is where we are dealing with choice, the crossroad of darkness and light.

I’ve learned a few things the last few months; Life goes on and how we want it to go on is a choice and even if we want to escape, there is nowhere to escape so we might as well make right now awesome.