Soft summer days I Let go and enjoy summer to its fullest

Summer has reached its middle already and the days here up north have been rainy yet beautiful. Nature's lush green and abundant, fields full of flowers and the rain carrying intoxicating scents. It's been wonderful to take it all in to save you these peaceful moments. These fleeting days feel so precious because you know that in over just a month the darkness will return. This was my only wish for the summer, to enjoy this summer to its fullest, be present on these small moments and appreciate life as it is. So I decided to let go of work for the month of July and trust that still it'll all be okay waiting for me to get back. To give yourself permission to just be for now can be really liberating, yet not always as easy as it sounds. So this is what I wanted to share with you this time. How to let go and find some of these beautiful moments of peace and joy, summer at its best and in life in general. So often we rush through things, go through our to-do list and forget that this moment right here, right now will never come again. This is something I've been trying to learn for the past year, to appreciate my life more as it is. Not judging the outer success or achievement so much as the only thing of value, but consciously live more fully, immerse myself more in the everyday moments and seek beauty all around me in the normal mundane life. Filming these small moments has become a way for me to appreciate my life more, to seek beautiful places, to venture out even when it rains and snows and document these fleeting moments to the best of my ability, to share them with you in the hopes that the magic I feel can somehow be transported to you. What I've learned after starting to document this slower, more simple life is that every life has beauty and value in it, no matter how small we may sometimes feel, comparing our lives to those with more of what we dream of or those more successful. But I've lived long enough to know that outer success or money rarely brings lasting happiness. It can make you feel good for a moment, but because none of these outer things remain, we'll just be left with yearning for more and more. I feel we all do too much and many of us have these habits of being and doing that, even with our best intentions, might not be so easy to let go of. Just be and enjoy life sounds easy, but it can be hard at times. A fear of falling behind, of not doing enough, of not being enough. I guess it's human to fear that, even when you know it's a baseless thought. So with this promise to myself in mind, I decided to start going for small road trips around the new area we live in and I found many inspiring places that I wanted to share with you. Whenever I'm in need of inspiration or a new direction, I like to drive to new places. I don't know why, but seeing new things really inspires me and gives so many new creative ideas. Opening yourself to new things opens your mind to new possibilities. So how to let go and enjoy summer and life to its fullest? The answer is hidden in doing what makes your heart sing, no matter how simple the thing may be. Honestly, I think my life looks very boring from the outside. The piles of laundry, cooking for six people every day, weeding the garden. But filming these everyday tasks has allowed me to see the beauty in those mundane days, to seek the beauty purposefully. It's a lot like painting, walking in nature and searching for light and beautiful things to paint. That's why I believe creating can enrich your life deeply. It's not about what the outside world sees, but what you see, what you experience. That's what makes the difference. Hello, so I've been trying to desperately finish this painting that I've been painting for half a year now. But it's because of the move to the new house and everything that's been going wrong, so it's been like this forever project. But now I feel I don't really know what to do anymore and usually that's the point when I start to lose interest and, you know, be ready to let go of the painting. It's funny because all the paintings that I've made, I usually forget them. After finishing them, I just kind of, you know, let them go. And when I work on them, my sole focus is on them. And I think sometimes a really good way to look at life so that, you know, whatever there is in front of you right now, you focus on it. And this week I've been driving around the area we live in and, you know, trying to find these beautiful places and photograph and just be and save you the moments. And it's been really beautiful to take these moments, even if it's just an hour, you just drive somewhere and you just be. And there's this magic that happens when you let go and you let go of work and responsibilities and everything just for a little while and you don't just, you know, you just put them behind you for an hour. And I can't quite explain it, but it's really, it fills me with energy and this kind of, I don't know, I just, it's just, I've been just enjoying it so much. And the garden, it's been so cold and it's been raining so much that things grow but so slowly and it's almost the middle of June now and, you know, we're just a month away from when the first frosts can come basically, so I'm a little afraid. But the warmth will not be enough for the plants this summer and it's kind of strange because the spring arrived so early, relatively here, and now it feels like the summer hasn't. And there have been some few warmer days of 20 celsius plus, but that's it. And in a way I'm really happy because of that, because I know that in Europe and in many places it's been suffocatingly warm and here it's just, you know, pleasant. But in a way trying to grow minor things and, you know, save them for the winters, it's beginning to feel a little desperate, but I don't know, let's see. Maybe we'll get a heat wave and all the things will, you know, flourish and I hope so. But anyways, this has been a really beautiful month here nonetheless and even with the rainy days it's been quite pleasant to be outside and, you know, be in the rain because it's not too cold and yeah. This is the project of the week and I'm gonna finish it this week and then start on new paintings and things. And sometimes it's really good to finish things. I don't like to leave paintings unfinished because then I just forget and I forget also the idea that I had for the painting and I don't remember it anymore and it's just kind of loose touch. And that's why I think with creating it's important to finish what you started and then start new ones because then you, you know, build the habit of finishing things off and I find that it's really helpful in some things that you don't leave things hanging. Anyways, I'm wishing you a wonderful July and hopefully a little bit warmer than here and I'll talk to you again soon. Take care, bye-bye!