I have thoroughly enjoyed these last days of Autumn and little did I know
that these fields of wild rye and rosehip would all be buried under
a thick blanket of snow only a few days after I took this walk
thankfully I filled up my basket with more than enough rose hips to last me the winter
and I look forward to many nights of nutritious tea I plan to remove and put aside a handful in
order to experiment with the recipe making some sweet dough infused with this fruity wild food
I loved an evening of experimentation with these often overlooked Treasures
I wanted to share something that has often guided me as I go through the chapters of my
life and perhaps will ReSound with you let me ask you this when you were your young
child did you ever spend time imagining all the things you might be when you grow up perhaps it
was an artist an astronaut a singer maybe you found yourself at a Crossroads at some
point when you were older should I get married should I study this should I live here or there
every time we made a decision we left numerous potential life paths behind at least for a while
we may try different things live different ways but by the end there's a multitude of
options left over that we didn't have the time to discover if you've ever found yourself wondering
how things could have been you have a treasure of insight into who you are and what you need
for example I've always had an interest in people who have lived their lives in solitude
I also love plants and sometimes wondered if I should have been a scientist but right now
I'm here with the choices I made and while I'm contented with those I still like to
revisit those unlived lives and wonder what aspects of those possibilities those what
ifs I can imbue into my present existence in order to enrich my day foreign [Music]
as a lover of Botany I could take a local class on plant identification with an interest in mysticism
I spent some time in silent contemplation each day you see while we cannot simultaneously
live each of those lives all at once and explore their possibilities to the fullest
there's often very little stopping us from taking at least some small Gem of inspiration from those
other versions of ourselves particularly if we're wistful or lacking somehow in our present
it has often helped me get through a difficult time by adding a little something into my day I
let that other life Inspire and teach me more about my present we aren't missing out we're
allowing our diverse interests and passions to live with us even if it's in a small way
right now I filmed Gathering the rose hips and then only about a week later just an enormous
snowstorm hit us and my mother I think had up to two feet of snow at one point it has melted
away a little bit but there's still so much out there and the valley is completely transformed
which is exciting and it seems rather early to have this much snow so autumn is definitely over
which is rather Bittersweet but winter is always so enchanting a while ago I was rather inspired
to make a video on this topic which I wasn't sure how people would respond I I don't know
if this is a very relatable thing but what I do know is that a lot of us often are worried about
making choices they can seem so Monumental and critical and some of which really are I know for a
good year or two after moving out here I spent a lot of time wondering if I should have stayed
in university did I make a mistake choosing life over here you know even though those are questions
I'm now at peace with for quite a long while I was very worried that I was not making the right
choices for myself and and looking back on it I realized that there wasn't necessarily a right
or wrong choice because each choice was going to give me incredible opportunities to grow and
to learn even though I'm not pursuing my degree and don't have any plans to do that right now I
know that I still deeply enjoy reading books and learning and reading a paper now and then
and exercising my more critical mind and I can still have that unlived life influenced me and
enriched my life right now even though I'm not doing what I thought I would be doing one way
that I allowed that dream that I did not pursue influenced me is that I became a teacher at a
preschool for a while and that was an incredibly rewarding experience and I still hope someday to
teach art classes that is a long-term dream of mine there's so many ways I can still mentor and
teach even though my life has taken a slightly different direction thinking that way makes me
a little less afraid in regards to choosing a life path because that life path can take you
in so many different directions you can follow multiple passions at the same time depending
on who we are we all have limitations in what we can and cannot do and that is why I think
you know Finding small ways to bring those other interests into our lives can be really rewarding
I'll give one last example and that is my own writing when I became an adult I found it very
difficult to get my writing out there unless it was for like a local magazine or something
like that I went to writers conferences and I submitted my writing to agents all the time and
I would always get a very quick response of we're not interested I think one of the main criticisms
of my writing that I would submit usually in the form of fiction novels was that my writing
style was too archaic and old-fashioned that made sense because I did have a huge passion
for Victorian literature and a lot of older literature that definitely influenced my
vocabulary and my style of writing I heard so many times over that that more archaic style
of writing just wouldn't be appealing to many people so I started writing up little scripts
about you know thoughts and Reflections on the day and life as a quieter person and I started
to share them in the form of videos and it led me to having this YouTube channel for a long time
those videos were a very small part of my life as I was still working full time at another job
but over time it surprised me and became something much bigger so now I'm so glad that I never
completely gave up on my interest in writing I wanted to say one huge thank you to everyone who
has supported me through my Etsy shop thank you so so much it really helps keep this channel going I
am just so grateful I will be open to maybe three more weeks at most but I do have to close for the
month of December because my little tiny Town post office just gets a little bit too busy and cannot
handle any more packages so I appreciate your support right now and I will let you know a little
bit before I close thank you so much and I hope you have a wonderful week sending my love goodbye