Hi, here I am again

What a time it has been! I had to float for a while until my inner lion would shout me awake again.

Time flies when you are having fun!

August came and went and now it is long past November. My inner lion was screaming and there was only a little bit of bobbing in the past six months.

I missed you guys! I missed sharing all my mishaps and experiences with you. I missed taking you on a journey through the dark rooms of my heart and the deeper layers of our being.

But it was a busy summer, one that rolled on deep into autumn. And still: I find it hard to plant my butt in the new office chair, a slightly oversized gift from my sweetheart.

The reason?

Money.

You? I hear you say it. You, living so offgrid, low cost and close to nature? But after three and a half years, it was really time to go to the Netherlands, embrace my family again and do all sorts of things too (giving my love a tour of Rotterdam, for instance). And with rising prices and my good intentions, an electric bike is also in the pipeline (no I don't feel that old, but at forty-eight, going up the mountain every day is something I prefer to do in an eco-friendly way, with heart for my inner nature).

So.

Money.

Sometime in mid-summer, after I reluctantly finished a paid writing assignment, I decided that I needed to handle my writing talent differently. I no longer wanted to write about what didn't interest me, what went against my ideologies, what in my eyes no longer fit into the new normal.

So I had to find the money I needed out there. And this summer, that took a lot of time. With and little job here, babysitting there and maintaining the fields, there were days when I didn't even have time to plop on the sofa at the end of the day, it became going straight through to bed.

Not that I didn't enjoy the many street parades I got to participate in, the painting of dozens of faces, kids and adults alike, and the hours babysitting the most adorable Ari. It was certainly an enjoyable way to earn that money. Still, I am glad for the rain they are predicting here now and, as a result, the finally ending of the busy summer season.

Because not only do I not have peace in my butt, but not in my head either.

In fact, more things have changed in the last few months: new ideas have sprung up (and that with 42 degrees and full sun!) and shifts have taken place.

First, I let go of a guest blog. I found that I prefer to spend that time on my own blog.

Next I was already shifting in the spring with the direction in which I want this blog to go. As I wrote in another post, I don't want to commit to a theme, but of course I also want to offer something. And what is that? I thought long and hard about that, because of course I want to provide quality, a reason for you to keep reading what I write. I think my latest version 'About Me' already shines a pretty good light on that, although I still want to tinker with it a bit:

All in all, it was six months in which I had to start taking myself and my writing talent more and more seriously. That's why I also created my own website, where you can find everything about me, with links to my blog, socials and projects:

I have filled in, erased and rearranged my weekly schedule I don't know how many times this semester. If I wanted to take myself seriously, I also had to be more appreciative of my own time. The search for answers to the questions: how do I want to spend my time, what do I still give my time to and what do I want in return, you can read in my latest blog post Gold.

Still, to allow myself a tea with writing about what does interest me, there will soon be the option on this platform to make a monthly donation should you wish to do so.

I hope to see you again soon, my intention is to dive back into my heart much more frequently, swimming through my souls stirrings and sharing them with you.

From my heart to yours:

Love,

Daphne