unconditional joy of life meets fashion

Did you ever wonder why dogs are (almost) always in a good mood? They need so little to give back so much! No new dress, no new pair of shoes, no fancy house or other possessions. Dogs are great teachers of joy.

And the nature itself. Trees, birds, grass, horses. They never complain about rainy, cloudy or a too cold day. They 'know' how to enjoy each moment. They are fully immersed in NOW, simply enjoying their presence. Unconditionally. No matter what happens on the outside surface (excluding the extreme cases of course).

A weekend spent with my friends and their cheerful dogs in a house located in a middle of a forest made me wonder. WHEN and WHY did I lose this ability to simply enjoy my Being. Unconditionally. When did I start to believe that to feel simple joy of life I need all these things, places and people manifesting certain behaviour towards me?

It is a beautiful sense of freedom to realise that joy of life is more 'and inside than an outside job', paraphrasing William Arthur Ward. All the external has an inevitable expiry date after all. It is helpful to remember that particularly at the times when one does not possess much. Just look at the dogs and the nature. Having nothing they are an authentic manifest of a poor joy of life. I strongly believe that, if we are only ready, they can help us to reconnect with this essential truth.

I still love a new dress and a new pair of shoes, but my relation to fashion (as we know it nowadays) had evolved and changed a lot throughout the past years. I am now 'more interested in clothes than in fashion' itself, quoting  Lidewij Edelkoort. Standing against poor quality, disposable, short expiry date clothing I am convinced to promote new quality of fashion I will call the Clothes.

PS. Yes, I know it would be good to have a fresh set of photos shot!

to DO or to BE? And why clothes?

Special thanks to Magda Zając and Kanton

When life gets difficult

Life is difficult.

But once you ACCEPT the fact it IS difficult,
 it becomes much easier starting from that point.

Changing the saddles

11 boxes packed, a sunset view from the Terrace of the Palace of Culture and Science (I do regret I did not go there more often! Don't make the same mistake, do visit often if you can! ) and a good bye afternoon with the 'Warsaw' horses. This is how my four-and-half-year adventure with this city came to an end. (as for now).

Before I arrived here I would never have expected I would EVER live in the city that evokes such polarized feelings and it is not really famous for its beauty ( 'blame' the history not the city! I understood it perfectly after visiting the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Do visit if you can!). A huge change after warm and socially open Spain I managed to get used to, I must admit. I was never a fan of this location. Once I even decided to reject a lucrative job offer and to stay abroad with no job at all in order to avoid coming here. Well, life can be very tricky sometimes as you might already know.

Someone told me once that 'the people we meet are either our friends or our teachers'. I think the same about places. Warsaw is a great teacher of mine and after all this time I must say I learnt to like it, in its particular way, and to make friends with her (allow me to call it 'her'). But the time for a change and the new had come and here it is happening. I must say that in spite of all the feelings that follow leaving the comfort zone this change seems very natural. Life is wise and more and more times I come to see that we can trust and relax back. Like when galloping. The more relaxed you are the more joy you have with it. And for me galloping is a synonym for life interactions and an exemplary case of living in a 'flow', that is to say in a harmony and an alignment with the world, if you know what I mean (?).

Wrocław brings a pleasant change. How less dense it is! How slower people walk and they stop to let you cross the street! A really nice experience, for a change (sorry Warsaw).

So, ladies and gentlemen, the saddle has been changed. Shall we gallop?

You CAN much more than you THINK you can

OK this time really briefly. Sometimes , I have moments of much more 'inner' than 'outer productivity' and this is one of them, but I think it is a good story to share just at the advent of the next new year.

'I can much more than I THINK I can', I understood very profoundly after my first day of volunteering at the local Hippotherapy Centre in Warsaw.

I had been helping with some individual and group kids hippo-therapy sessions. This included helping with the horses that were participating in the activities but also some interactions with the students themselves. Absolutely amazing children that I consider myself lucky to have met. Children that were in some way or the other not fully able.

And I was astonished with their deeply ingrained exuding positive energy I received. Surprisingly, not very common for so called 'fully able world'.

That was an eyes opening experience, after which I promised to myself: 'no more complaints, and no more fake excuses, which are often only my untrue and limiting THOUGHTS. I do have all I need to get where I want to, and this is so much already!'.

Nobody else will get to work on my passions and 'special gifts', if I won't.
And each time I am more convinced that all it takes is a conscious decision, consistency... and practice (it is enough to follow a biography of any master in a given discipline).

After this realisation a series of equine art paintings and illustrations simply flowed out from under my hand. I am so grateful for that.

A good start for the next new bunch of (hopefully) 365 days ahead.
Let's make a good use of them and every single one as if they were unrepeatable miracles (which they actually are). After all we really can much more than we THINK we can.

Do share if you 'think' the same.