Celebrating light

The warm signs of January are welcome to make us more awake. When the sun is shining even a little bit through the thin clouds,  I feel like stepping outside and I want to capture the moment.

Contrasts and reflections are making the reality bigger than it is. Like we could watch the streets and the silhouettes in all a way round, 360 degrees. 

I can see the sky on the street, reflecting from the water puddle.

It feels we could jump in there and end inside the Earth. Like the Earth would be just an invisible bubble or a cell that reflects the space. 

But here I am standing on the asphalt, feeling the warmth of the sun and hearing the noice of my shoes when I'm walking. Celebrating the light.

I'm happy this is real,

Celebrating the life.

The light goes through me with a patient speed.

It makes me curious and it makes me dream.

The first Saturday of 2021

So many sunny days to remember from the last year even it was a hard road to walk sometimes.

What I learned? I learned to appreciate the movement of mind and the movement of body. Together these two are making the action possible.

I learned not to wait too long and think too much before taking the action. Because of the still life in society during the pandemic, the limited possibilities, the loss and the fear we read about. It made me realize I have to start doing the things that really support my interests, my happiness and my health. 

Every year I want to start and learn something new.        

*Happy new Year*

January can start

30 000 Healthy Steps

We are having a first rainy day after a long period of warmth and sun in Amsterdam. It is time to look back to last weeks and what happened to me personally. I have seen so much beauty during this challenging spring time and something has changed inside me. Even the most negative news, the shaken world situation or personal difficulties are not taking me down. All I see and feel is the wind of change that has helped me to realize that only I am responsible of my own growth as a person. I have to take the decisions that are good for me and it is my responsibility to draw my borders and decide how I react on challenging situations. That is all I can do. 

This simple clarity gave me the strength to do some personal changes. One of them is this idea of walking every day minimal 10 000 steps. I have downloaded an app on my phone to follow up my walking habits. Normally I cycle a lot for practical reasons, but by walking I have found the most inspiring corners of Amsterdam. Most of the times I do these walks with my husband and this is helping us to deal our difficulties as a couple. Talking is easier outside and we can listen each other better in other environment than home.

I share you some impressions from two different walks this week. During these walks we achieved about 30 000 steps in 2 days. I have missed the nature and green views more and more this year. We can't find the same peace and quiet rhythm here as we do every summer in Finland, but even near Amsterdam there are some nice areas where you can enjoy your time outside surrounded by the water views and green silhouettes. 

Parklandschap de Oeverlanden, de Nieuwe meer and het Amsterdamse Bos

On monday we walked along the water from the canals of South Amsterdam and along the lake(het Nieuwe meer)towards to Amsterdamse Bos. The walk lasted almost 4 hours with a little snack break. We found an excellent boat connection to the other side of the Nieuwe meer and could spontaneously walk via "the woods of Amsterdam" back home. The boat trip was 1 Euro per person and you can take the bike on board. All the walks we have made are also nice to do by bike and for us it felt like being abroad in this Corona time. I find it very  interesting to explore our home town in this way. 

de Nieuwe Meer: you can see the boat route (Helena) as a white line crossing the water.

Breaking some habits

I have changed my eating and drinking patterns this spring. I never felt that alcohol is a big problem for me, but lately I just felt my system, my body doesn't want it any more. When I was younger I was going out almost every week with my friends and drinking alcohol was always part of it. We were dancing and drinking until late at night. During the last years we were more or less just having a glass of wine or maximum two with my husband. Otherwise we just had some drinks with our friends during the visits or parties. 

One year ago I started to feel that I actually hate alcohol and how it makes me feel. It used to give me more energy and good spirits when enjoyed with a good company, but lately I just started to feel tired and it seemed to be just an old habit to relax with a glass of wine. But even a small amount of it destroyed my sleep and I got slow and my body seemed to be fighting against the chemical attack.

One day I felt I don't want to drink anymore regularly. I just did not miss it anymore. It did not help me to communicate better, it did not help me to find more joy in my life. I wanted to feel sharp and face every day the way it comes. Still I would drink a wine or a cocktail at the party or when we were invited for a dinner. But otherwise I would give my body and mind a rest, letting go of the almost daily habit of wine and leave it to some social situations if I felt like it. The whole process that I am going through is to listen to what I feel and what my body needs. The change was very easy. I do not have any need to buy some wine or beer for normal days and my body says "thank you". During the last two months I only had some wine with the dinner when we went to visit our friends. I can enjoy it when it's just every now and then..like once a month.

Cauliflower  beef going to oven with some spicy olive oil, chili and herb based mixture (25min, 180 celsius.)

Eating more vegetables.

I had a health check by the doctor about a month ago. I had felt tiredness for a longer time and woke up often during the night. It turned out that I have a lack of vitamin D and that my total cholesterol level is much higher than recommend. The high cholesterol runs in my family and I have to be careful with it. I have a normal weight, I do sports, I do not smoke, my blood pressure is normal and we cook quite healthy food. Still I have a high cholesterol. I will come back to this issue some other time, but I just want to remind it is important to do regular health checks after you turn 40. I would like to avoid the medication and make more healthy choices and avoid the stress.

I will attack to this problem by eating less animal fat and go and test my results again after the summer. I have cooked quite a long time low carb style. This diet includes a lot of vegetables, but also a lot of hard animal fat. I did no feel totally comfortable with it. I have started to follow more like a mediterranean style food philosophy: olive oil, peanuts, much vegetables,fruit and berries, sometimes fish and almost no meat. I left all the fetty creams, cappuccinos, butter and extra sugars etc. I feel better. The more colorful plate of food, the more happy I am. You have to be careful with all the trendy diets there are. Like me having a genetically high cholesterol, I really have to avoid hard fat, but still know that some plant based oils and margarines are not always good as well. Instead of butter I use olive oil. It is better really to learn to listen to your body and how it reacts to different foods. So I take the best parts of different ideas that are suitable for me. Everyone is different. 

Getting to know new places in Amsterdam. 

Because we had more time to be outside lately, we wanted to make our horizons wider in our home town. This week we had our second walk around the Sloterplas. This lake in "nieuw West"(new west)is a beautiful spot for a longer walk (6km) or just having a picnic on many grass fields around the water in Sloterpark. A very peaceful route around the lake with nice views. You can cycle here easily from the centre or take a tram number 1 or 17 to direction "osdorp". It is worth to explore the city further than just staying in the centre. It gives the feeling of freedom to have more space and see people enjoying their time in these green living rooms of Amsterdam. This park is one of the biggest in Amsterdam and gives a real picture of the many faces of the City. At the moment this is my favorite route.

Many personal changes and dreams are in my mind right now. One of them is that I hope we are able to go to Finland this summer. Hopefully our flights will not be cancelled. I want to see my parents and my sister and enjoy the peace at the summer cottage by the lake. We will be quite isolated there and we will be careful. 

I am thankful that I have got rid of the unnecessary feeling of shame. I do not find it so difficult anymore to talk about my weaknesses or about my history or what I really want. I am getting closer to the courage and the honesty and trust more to this moment and the future. I have surprised myself that I can so easily let go some patterns and do some changes I want. 

Happy weekend!

September silence

September is one of my favorite months and Autumn is the time for the fresh starts. This year a lot of energy has gone for preparing and starting a new step along with my son. He started a secondary school (middelbare school) a couple of weeks ago. He will stay in this school for the next 6 years if everything goes well. A lot of new information to absorb and a path of new independence in creation, spread horizons ahead of us. At the same time happiness and joy of seeing my son to grow and making long steps, making new friends. I am learning to let  go and at the same time to support him in this change. This is also inspiring me and reminding me of my old school years. I think I appreciate the school more now than I did during my own school career:) 

Instead of just reading the books and learning new words in French, English or Latin, we have to remember to go for walks in the Nature. Last weekend we went for a "green round" in Amsterdamse bos(the forest of Amsterdam). You can't find a total silence or peace in this lovely area thoug - The Schiphol Airport is too close, but you can find nice walking & cycling paths deeper in the forest. You can also borrow a canoe or a boat, swim with the small kids or visit the goat farm. There is so many sporty activities you can join and many sport clubs for regular hobbies.

Play time for the whole Family

Sometimes the air traffic is very noisy in Amsterdamse bos

one of the 116 bridges in Amsterdamse bos

Living in a city can be a challenge sometimes if you love to be connected with the Nature and teach your children to appreciate the living world around us. Luckily we can see trees through our windows at home and the dutch school program with the period of "schooltuinen" (school gardens)is supporting with the natural education. In the groups of 6 and 7 in the elementary school, some schools are taking part to this opportunity to teach the children some basic elements of our close green environment. Every child gets her/his own little garden to grow some vegetables and flowers. This process of planting the seeds to the soil with your own hands and taking care of the growing garden, is a good thing to do in this modern world. 

In the end of the summer I got wonderful gifts from my daughter: flowers, potatoes, eggplants, zucchinis, carrots, beans...and many other organic products to our kitchen. Every child was very proud of their garden and their own vegetables. They even learned new recipes for cooking. I am very thankful for this dutch idea of letting kids to explore and learn about environmental issues in a practical way. As I was there with the kids a couple of times, I noticed that some children were afraid of getting their hands dirty or worried of their clothes getting some earthy marks. But mostly I saw happy faces and enthusiasm. 

WORK

And I started jogging again after a summer break. Sometimes I just like to listen to the birds during my run, but every now and then I need some good instrumental music to keep me going. This is one of my favourites at the moment. Not only for jogging, but also just relaxing and escaping to my own world for a while. Finding the silence from my mind.

Canal views

Summertime goes fast and living away from your Home Country makes it sometimes more difficult to notice the different periods of time. If I would be in Finland now, we would be already celebrating the midsummer party somewhere in the countryside, probably by the lake at someone's Summer Cottage. Now we don't have any big plans, but for me the boat trip by the Canals of Amsterdam this week was like a little Holiday! A spontaneous invite from our friends to join them and enjoy the perfect weather with the water element and the City views. This was quite a big,old rescue boat, where three families could easily sit and walk without any problem when the boat was moving. The children in Holland have to do their swimming Diplomas and only the smallest ones without this certificate had their Safety Vests on. The perspective from the boat is amazingly beautiful, you see all the houses in a different light and there is a feeling of space around you. No cyclists and no busy streets with tourists, just sight seeing boats every now and then. The boat traffic would be totally different during the big Festivals and Parades when the Canals are filled with boats, music and party people. We instead had a nice, peaceful trip - Oh,I would like to do this more often!

One of the many highlights of our evening was to park the boat and get some Ice Cream for everyone! "Heel lekker", as the Dutch people say "Very Tasty".

Westerkerk, Prinsengracht(West Church)

At the Sloterkade, in the South part of the City,you can often see some big and long transporting boats. It is a bit scary feeling in a narrow canal to pass these Monsters.

By boat you are going under many Bridges and some of them are low. You have to be careful not to hit your head when standing. 

Many boats have the Amsterdam Flag set in the back of the boat when cruising around the water routes. The three crosses in the middle of the Flag are Saint Andrew Crosses. Some people say the three saltires represent the three dangers of the ancient Amsterdam: Fire, Floods and the Black Death. But this theory has no historical basis. The more official accepted meaning for the crosses, represented by Queen Wilhelmina in 1947 is: Compassion, Resolution and Heroism. 

The flag of Amsterdam. 

Have a good weekend and thank you for reading!!