Sometimes life feels overwhelmingly strange.
We often think it’s made out of big moments.
Something to look forward to - big achievements, a degree, marriage,
an important new job, a car, a house,
the biggest mountain peak, an X figure salary.
So many end goals, big goals we work so hard to achieve, day after day.
So we could live great lives, beautiful lives, grand lives
A life which many can only dream of. Big thrills which make it worthy of living.
That’s what I first thought when I started making this video.
What else can I create to impress you?
How can I stretch this footage from a beautiful place in the mountains to create an illusion
of a wonderful, cinematic, thrilling moment of life?
How will it compare to the mundane reality I’m living in at this moment,
with real problems, real worries, real routine that perhaps nobody actually wants to see
when they escape into someone’s world on the internet.
This might turn out as a slightly different type of video.
I didn’t have any real idea, or concept when editing this.
I just had leftover scenes from Lake District which didn’t fit into last week’s story,
and I wanted to share them with you. And then move on.
Find something else to look forward to. And then look back at and think -
this moment, though not as grand, was just as special in its simplicity.
Do we ever really share the truth about our lives?
Funny how social interactions actually makes us less “social”, but rather socially acceptable.
We only share what we think others want to see or hear -
we ask how are you on the street without expecting a real answer.
And then walk by, a brief “acceptable” smile fading with each step.
"Sorry, I overshared." " That might’ve made someone uncomfortable."
We don’t show emotion to strangers, and we hide them from friends -
or else they might think we’re being too dramatic.
Did you ever feel like that?
Life is strange like that.
Sometimes the best you can do is be too dramatic.
Love. Feel. Smile or cry - that’s the reason we exist here.
Life can hurt you, swallow you up in the wave of feelings nothing can protect you from.
Not anyone else, nor solitude which will one day overtake you with longing.
And all you have to do is keep feeling each moment as it comes, and risk your tender heart.
I wake up for sunrise for no reason.
Take a long morning walk without a goal in mind.
Share ripe juicy blackberries with wasps and morning birds.
I take up new language lessons without having anyone to speak to,
only because of that one possibility that maybe one day I’ll order coffee
at a small local bar in Italy sounding somewhat like a local.
Or learn how to play a guitar, forgetting everything about it,
then learning how to play again when desire overtakes me.
Speaking about mountains - I’m probably the worst person to hike to the top with.
You’ll find me taking detours, sitting idly by a small stream
watching clear water wash over the perfectly round rocks, or collecting weeds and flowers,
never actually making it to the peak or taking too much time to do so.
The mountain top isn’t a goal for me.
Everything else encountered on the way there is.
And when I am finally standing on the peak I want to remember that journey
in every detail.
I have to remind myself that life really is so simple.
The pleasures of little moments when you have nothing else to do but be.
Do just because your heart is telling you to, for no reason other than
a simple joy of being in the moment.
We overthink, we think we need to do actions much bigger than that,
but life really consists of small deeds, little moments which seem insignificant at start,
but they’re the puzzle pieces which make life what it is.
They’re the sweet little memories which eventually make up that big picture of life.
They’re the ripe berries you picked under golden August sunshine,
sweet juice staining your fingers purple.
They’re the slow Sunday mornings filled with the smell of coffee and a cheesecake,
which turned out so well even though you again failed to stick to the recipe.
Bigger things, grand moments - while amazing and absolutely needed in life,
- they only happen ever so often.
The journey though, you have to go through every day.
And I want that journey to be a memorable one.