Putting things in perspective.....

I want to share this clip with you that I saw last week...... Chances are if you're seeing this that you are living in the first world, just like me.....and that you, just like me, will feel that this puts things in perspective.... Sad, powerful and certainly food for thought!


xox

The future....the unknown.

We all have these moments in our lives, when we really have to question what is truly important for us.....we have to think things over......ensure we are either on the right course or figure out the new coordinates....and then...then comes the hardest part - To make choices. Which way should we go? Should we go with our guts? Should we choose the easy way? The one with least expected obstacles? Should we do nothing? Will our hearts be the best guides? Or maybe our minds? ....and then another hard, but critically important part, can we avoid being influenced by others in making choices to ensure we are doing what is right for us and only us? 
Crossroads....that's what they are.....and I have the feeling, they are appearing in front of me more than what's normal....or maybe people just don't talk about theirs? "Where is that crystal ball?!" I can't even begin to count the number of times I've asked myself that question.....

Right now, as you might be able to imagine, or as you probably know if you already are a parent, I am asking myself many questions.....like, how will things feel after the baby arrives? Will I still have the drive and ambitions that I've had as long as I can remember? Will I want a more quiet life? Can I handle a more quiet life? Does this/that make sense also in the future? What is best for me? ...and is that what's best for us?

I think I have too much time on my hands right now. Too much time to think and  to contemplate...and too few friends around......so today I'm trying new things. Small things......I'm eating a new breakfast. Listening to new music. Hoping this will give me a new perspective....shed a different light on things.

Compared to a few years ago, I feel a major change inside. I am happy now! I mean really happy!! I have a sense of peace inside....the same kind of peace I felt as I child and had just started to explore the world. When I look upon the world now, I am aware of the risks of my decisions, that's probably the difference compared to what I was like as a child, but what I see, what's in focus if you will, are the opportunities and adventures! ...just like back then. The choices I am making these days do not impact my happiness.....it is safe, it is in the right place, it's within me! Independent of the world, the consequences of our choices and the opinion of others. I know not many choices are irreversible. Not really! Not many things have to be permanent unless we want them to be (parenthood aside ;)).....and by every mistake, comes new learnings and new experiences, so can they really be called "mistakes"?

So what are choices? .....curses or blessings? How do you make your choices and decisions? What changed for you after becoming parents? What is the scariest decision you ever made? Do you have many regrets?

xox

.....there are moments

....when we are reminded of how truly precious life is
....when we wish our best friend was as close to us physically as she/he is to our hearts
....when we wish we could share our happiness with the whole world that surrounds us
....when we are so filled with sadness that the saltwater in our eyes can no longer fit in its hollow
....when our hearts feel as light as an animal shaped helium ballon at a birthday party
....when we feel so inspired that we simply can not stop creating
....when our hearts ache so much it is as if they were set on fire
....when the voice of our loved ones sound as sweet as the frosting on our favorite cupcakes
....when our heart almost stops while we are waiting to hear the outcome of potentially life-changing news
....when we know we are doing something we probably shouldn't be doing
....when we can barely breathe from the suspense
....when it feels as if caterpillars turn to butterflies in the cocoons that are our bellies
....when we have the feeling that the sun is shining just for us
....when we feel that we are small, insignificant and replaceable
....when we realize that the one we love, sincerely loves us back
....when we feel like we could conquer the world
....when we are so afraid
....when we just can't stop laughing


Savor these moments......they are what makes us human. They are what we call life.
xox

Living a charmed life......

Have you ever felt like you are living a charmed life? 


Like you always come out of it head up, feet down.... Like luck is your faithful companion and that little magic has a tendency to surround you? May seem silly to you, but this is how I feel!


I've had quite some rough patches in my life and sometimes they have been so rough that I felt there was absolutely no way out or up, no light, just darkness........and yet, here I am, stronger than ever, living in the present, feeling ridiculously happy and looking at the future with nothing but great hopes! 


Ok, I've had some luck in my life too - for sure that's true, but I honestly think you make your own luck! It's a mindset! It's about the way a positive mind & mood attracts positive things. 

It's paying attention to what is really around you. The small things that make life beautiful..... It's about finding the joy you can not find in your own life at the moment in the lives of your near and dear ones and to never stop believing you deserve to be happy and not feeling too discouraged on days when you're not, knowing this is not a curse but a temporary set back, designed to make you who you are supposed to be. 


It's about filling your life with wonder and with moments that take your breath away! It's about being conscience of your present, living in each moment knowing where you are and who you are. It's about taking the time to watch the rainbow, wondering where it starts and where it ends! It's about loving the way raindrops look on a fallen leaf on a damp, foggy morning. It's about closing your eyes as you take a bite to enjoy the divine taste of a cupcake and the smell of freshly cut grass, or about the close to silent sound of falling snowflakes and enjoying the way the moon illuminates them, capturing one on your tongue just to feel the contrast of cold on hot while it rapidly melts....


You can not fake it! ....but you can practice it, with patience, and when you can smile at the world with joy, the world will smile back at you.


Everyone can live a charmed life... A charmed life is not a perfect life! You could say a charmed life is a life of appreciation. Not saying it is always easy, but it is a choice...... Make it ;))


xox

Take a leap!!

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

George Bernard Shaw

I want to build a little bit on a feeling I had on Friday. A feeling that was long forgotten or at least hidden deep down inside of me....

For reasons I can't fully understand or explain, age has made me fear things that used to seem like everyday adventures in the past. I'm not talking about BIG, obviously harmful things - but rather small, easy things where fear can't be explained by pure logic.

I could probably argue that age has made me "smarter", at least that's how my reasoning works, realizing that certain things actually do come with danger.....statistics and experience teaches us to stay out of trouble and to avoid situations in which we can so easily get hurt, whether it's about breaking your arm or breaking your heart, or simply the fear of being rejected or disappointed.

On Friday, somebody reminded me of the importance to sometimes take a leap! To go against my illogical inner fears and just do it.... To jump off a bridge, into the Rhein.

When I was younger, I used to do things like this all the time, head first, without doubting thoughts or fears disturbing my decisiveness and determination. Now, at the age of 31, it took me 15 minutes of increasingly heavy nervous breathing, shaking hands and legs of spaghetti well over "al dente" before I finally just jumped.

Simple. Harmless. Achievable.

At the age of 31, I felt old! (if you are around 20, you'll agree that I am, if you are my age, you'll probably know what I'm talking about and if you are less young than me, let me just remind you that I know I'm not o l d , but you've been here too ;)).....

I will still have days of feeling old, rightly or wrongly, I'm sure! ....but this situation made me take a leap, literally, and it made me feel like I was invincible, adventurous and young and most of all - it made me feel alive!! Now this is more important that a number in state records, on a piece of paper or in a passport and I assure you, it's more effective than any beauty treatment I've ever been to!!

Why spend thousands of Dollar's, Euro's or other currencies on fixing the superficial signs of age - when all you should really need to feel good about yourself is erase or reduce the signs of age in your mind to stay alive in your heart and soul? It costs nothing but perhaps some time on creative thinking and it comes without recovery time ;)

It's so easy to forget that we are really our own worst enemies and these are the battles worthy of our energy.

Thanks Chris for encouraging me to take a leap!!! You were right ♥

I feel AWESOME!

xox

Linda - Alive in Switzerland....encouraging you to take a leap!

Oh my?! It's JUNE already!

JUNE as in S U M M E R !!!

I can't believe how rapidly time flies by when you're not really paying attention! I guess I must have been pre-occupied.... OK, so here's a little update:

I'm........

Happy about: The official arrival of summer!

Disappointed about: How some people just never seem to grow up and even worse, how you think you know someone and then realize you were wrong =(

Thinking about: Food! Dinner!! It'll be Swedish waffles!! If you haven't figured it out yet............. I ♥ FOOD!!

Annoyed with: My new EMU USB Tracker and Sonar Cakewalk - Audio dropouts!! Anyone any ideas??

Listening to: Just the sound of me typing on my keyboard.

Imagining: That Sweden would have actually qualified into the FIFA world cup 2010 so I could have followed it with true PASSION! Aaaawwwww......why why why??

Worrying about: Not finding the perfect little house in the Stockholm archipelago this August.... It has to have a Sauna, a wooden pier (as walking slowly into the water is NOT an option!), be relatively accessible from the mainland (I'm talking about mobile phone reception ;)), available between August 6-15th and not be ridiculously expensive. Not that easy, I can assure you ;)

Feeling: Hopeful, in love and at peace.

Hoping: That the nice weather comes this weekend like the weather forecast is currently promising! I want picnics and some freckles!

Looking forward to: Eating Indian food tomorrow night!!! It's been awhile! ....again food! Mmmmmm.....

Relieved by: Recieving my speeding ticket just to realise it was not at all as bad as I feared....and just to be clear - YES I learned my lesson!

Wondering: When I will be able to find good flight tickets to go home to Sweden for a weekend. I still haven't met my little niece =(

Thankful for: Chris, my friends and my family!

Wanting: Someone, ANYONE to help me figure out why Cakewalk is failing me (or why I am failing Cakewalk will probably be the likely scenario ;))

Wishing: ....you all a wooooonderful week!!

Take care.......and SMILE ♥

xox

Linda - Lost in Switzerland

"Borta bra men hemma bäst"

It's now been nearly two years since I moved away from Sweden, and all though it's normally quite easy for me to adapt, to stay positive and think ahead, some days this is really, really truly difficult.

If someone would ask me if I ever regret moving - there is no way I'd ever say yes!!

What is there to regret? I love living abroad!!

I love this feeling of complete independence!!

It toughens you up and makes you a stronger person. It gives you the feeling that you are in complete control of your own destiny and that YOU, and no one else, is at the steering-wheel

- windows down, full speed on open roads, stereo-blasting with your favourite music, wind in your hair!! A daily dosage of light adrenaline hitting you in a slow, steady stream.

....but then, there are times, not often, but like right this minutes, when this indepencece can also switch over to complete and utter loneliness (borderline style) and when it does - a wave of sadness so intense and so powerful washes over you and in that moment it is as if you realise exactly how small you are in this world. You don't stand a chance.....

All you can do is just close your eyes and let it pass by....because just like fear of the dark or the anticipation just before getting a shot at the doctors-office, you know that eventually, probably almost instantly or at LEAST shortly it will all pass by and you will again be back in that drivers-seat! Smiling...looking into that rear-view mirror thankful for all the things you've seen, feeling happy for and somewhat proud of yourself for daring to jump!

To all my wonderful friends and family back home: I miss you ❤ Always.....

xox
Linda - Lost in Switzerland, feeling a liiiiittle bit home-sick...after all, I'm only human ;))

Life is like a road....

Maybe you have a diffrent metaphor to describe it that suits you better, but this one has always been the one on my mind....

Sometimes life is uphill (the kind of uphill while on your bicycle), sometimes it is downhill, thrilling and exciting!

Sometimes it takes an unexpected turn while at other times, it all feels like the same old road that you've been driving for years to go to work, school or to soccer-practise...

There is the occasional short-cut or detour! Sometimes you'll find yourself at a cross-road and at times you'll even find a dead-end, but one thing is for certain - there is no such thing as a GPS in life to guide you (just intuition and good advice), but your road will always lead you somewhere so you'd better just move with it ;)

This past week has surely reminded me of this and to paint you the picture, here is my past weeks route:

Beginning of the week was surely uphill! Not only because it starts with going to work on a Monday, but because someone that I thought I knew has deeply disappointed me and shown a side to me that I never even knew existed. How to not feel so utterly disappointed and upset by something like this is a lesson I have yet to learn...

Funny enough, it almost instantly went downhill again in that "happy-eyes-closed-wind-in-your-hair-kind-of-way! A wonderful Christmas-party with work with a 1930's Mafia-scene theme..... (if you happen to know me, you'll know that I LOVE THEME-PARTIES)!

During the evening, I also experienced some unexpected turns of the good kind...

My week took another unexpected turn when I recieved a message from someone I truly

admire - completely unexpected turn in the "too-good-to-be-true-kind-of-way".

Won't mention any details here, but if it is too good to be true or not, only time will tell!!

I have decided to go wherever my road takes me and if it takes me to disappointment - well, so be it ;) I will get over that and learn from it. What I won't do is let fear of disappointment replace my curiosity in life!

Friday was absolutely wonderful and still very much downhill! Spent the evening with two of my friends and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful and brilliant people in my life... This is a kind of fuel to really keep one going!

Saturday was more like a traffic-jam ;) Went to Zurich for Christmas-shopping and couldn't believe the number of people in such a small space... Found the most brilliant English book-store and will surely become a regular customer! Especially after the Christmas-frenzy has blown over.... I was completely exhausted when I came home and spent the rest of this weekend recovering and relaxing.

In 17 hours I'm going home! Now this is as much down-hill as it gets these days ;)))

I feel so lucky to be spending the next 15 days with my friends and family! Such an instant happiness-trigger!

Hope you are all enjoying your roads.....hope you feel that you are headed in the right direction and if not, just remember that life has a funny way of turning when you least expect it and also remember that YOU and no one else is the driver!

xox

Linda - Off to be a little less lost than usual in Sweden for 15 days ;)

Empathy Love Life Happiness Wisdom

I have recently had so many feelings of sadness.....not really for myself, but for people I care about.

In my mind, empathy is one of the most important attributes a person can possess!

Why? Well....because empathy is the ability to feel for others. Sure it can bring you down at times when people around you are sad, hence the sadness I'm feeling right now....but the fantastic thing is that when they are happy, truly HAPPY - so are you!! Genuinely, without envy....just ridiculously happy for someone else! THAT is important and it's a truly beautiful thing... This ability to feel for others enables happiness even when it doesn't come from your own fortunes and I don't know about you - but I don't feel like my own fortune grow on trees ;)

Naturally this sadness that surrounds me has also made me wonder, why is it so difficult to find happiness sometimes? Why is it so hard to see beyond misery? Why can't we see the lack of sunshine as the sun just hiding behind those clouds, taking a nap, just resting for a while and instead only see a dark, threatening cloud preventing the sun to shine? Why can't we learn to appreciate what we have instead of feeling sorry for ourselves for what we don't have? Why can't we manage to see the beauty in eachother and instead dwell on the draw-backs?

Sadly, some people are unhappy because they are afraid of who or what they would become if they weren't.... It's like so many other things that makes us feel safe or comforted even though we are clever enough to know they are not necessarily good for us! Like sugar (Amen! I confess!) or drugs (no way!), or that job or that person in your life that makes you feel like shit that you can't seem to let go of believing that you don't really deserve better? Well you DO deserve better and when you start to believe that - you can also do good for others and inspire them to see their own unique worth.

(Picture sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/addran/page2/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/phitar/ http://www.oslcmonte.org/images/reaching%20out.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/62253642_dcc82dd481.jpg http://www.leksak.nu/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/children-jump.jpg http://api.ning.com/files/YyiXBfR*BwCBSAshT6o2oajxMFU*TU1v*85Fs1fmoxk_/laughter.jpg)

Lately I've had the good fortune to come across so many words of wisdom from some truly great minds out there! You know the difference of a sentence and words of guidance (much needed) when you read them and they really "hit home"...you know, right on the spot!!

...it makes you feel happy, victorious, triumphant but it can also make you feel nervous, sad or full of regret. Either way, those are the words that will help you move on and move up (or move out? ;)) For me - this is so inspiring and so human!!

Let's face it....we are not alone...many people feel just like YOU feel and I am so happy some of these people share their life learnings and wisdom. It doesn't have to be known philosophers or poets, it doesn't even have to be deliberate or even good-willed! It can be your collegue, or your teacher or maybe even a stranger on the bus that you are overhearing while he/she has a conversation. Anyway - you will know and when you get that feeling, when it hits that spot - use it! That's an opportunity right there!

Here are some quotes and words of wisdom that recently "hit that spot" for me....hoping they might also make someone else take the learning from them:

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do" Confucious

"Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness" Fariha Akhlaq

"Life is not a mystery to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" In my daily Facebook fortune cookie

"Be kind to unkind people - they need it more than anybody else" Confucious

"Out of every sorrow, another day will dawn" Eskobar

Deepak Chopra quotes:

"The known is the prison of past conditioning. We must step into the unknown to be free"

"If you don't have a shadow you are standing in darkness"

"You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks"

I am not ashamed to say that in most situations, I'd rather be seen as naive than cynical....
I believe if we always see the risk of failure instead of chance of success in every opportunity or if we focus on the obstacles instead of looking for ways around them - we miss out on appreciating life! L I F E !

Why can we never learn that life is precious and that it should never be taken for granted?

Love and regret - these two feelings remind you that you are alive like no other... Which one of these two would you like to be reminded by?

xox

Linda - Lost in her own mind again....in Switzerland