It was summertime. We fell in love with each other at the same time we fell in love with the Gardens. We both have been part of many communities and celebrations, we both have known many loves, but not like the Gardens, not like each other…
Our first Gardens party together was The Dunes of Babylon at Woodstock in Bloemendaal aan Zee in June 2017. There we celebrated my birthday & our 6-months courtship. Wow, what a magical party between the elements. Fine music, beautiful people, sun, sea, beach and so much love. Our love grew stronger… for each other and for the Gardens.
A few months later in August ’17 we cycled across the Playa on Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert. A different world and many like-minded people just like the Gardens. Bastiaan intuitively asked me to marry him, YES! I was nailed to the hard white dirt with cracks that ran to infinity. In that place I felt connected to everything around me. So big, so immense. We shared like never before. “Bicycling on the radiating moon, we witnessed the world moving in circles and watched the power of our Sun creating live on this hot dessert floor as it has from the beginning of times.”
We grew closer and closer, discovering many beautiful, energetic and magical places across our globe (the nature and spirit of Hawaii was very special) and we indulged in our passion for Ibiza and connecting to so many lovely and inspiring people. Together we manifested a boyhood dream and bought an old Mercedes-Benz 508 truck and turned it into our hippie, surf bus. In which we are now exploring the Netherlands and Europe with the 2 of us and our 3 children. A sense of pure freedom. Life smiled upon us.
On 31 Dec, 2018 at 23:50h Bastiaan caught me by surprise and proposed to me (properly) again at the Gardens New Years Eve Bash in Amsterdam, before so many beautiful souls of our Gardens family at the main stage just after our group meditation. YES!!!! Manon and Bastiaan had conspired with the Gardens team and everybody was so cool to make this possible. We later learned we had set a precedent.
Last year we were on our way to the Monastery with our surf bus, but unfortunately our buddy broke down making us miss half of the weekend. We had missed the second Gardens proposal, which is so cool (Congratz!).
Just a few weeks before we were heartbroken because of a pregnancy that ended in an emergency operation for Viola in which we lost our unborn child. The Gardens Family was there just at the right moment. We cried, shared, smiled, danced, loved and recovered!
In addition to many highlights and moments of intense happiness, we have also had our fair share of setbacks and experienced significant lows together. We have learnt to accept that this is part of our lives. Let’s just say it is a consequence of wanting to live life purposeful and to our fullest potential and to be madly and passionately in love.
The Gardens family inspires us to keep going and dance through the storms. Because life is there to be lived and to learn and it is beautiful in its pure intention.
June 20, 2020 was finally there. The day of the solstice, the longest day of the year and the first day of the summer. Corona wouldn’t stop us: we were going to get married anyway! Instead of a big wedding, we went small, intimate and very personal. Bastiaan picked me up in our bus with our 3 children. We got married at camping Lievelinge in Vuren. Our favorite place in North Brabant where magic comes to life and always stays with you. Just like the Gardens, Burning Man, Ibiza and many other special places in this beautiful world.
Those places where our lives are shared, discussed and celebrated. The places where love can be what it is. A bubble where the outside world does not exist. A place you will never quite grasp if you haven’t been there. A gang of epicureans who are in balance together and all so unique. Free spirited spirits full of creative energy. You go home feeling homesick and in love. For each other, for the Gardens, for life.
Now our love is eternalized, we are entangled in this journey called life, just like the Gardens family is in our hearts forever!
We love to see you somewhere on this beautiful globe.
To be continued…
Viola & Bastiaan A.K.A. Viva & Baas
