If you read my last newsletter then you will know that we have been redecorating our living room. Hardly front page news, I know, but the reason why I am sharing this with you is twofold. One reason is that the gorgeous colour of our walls reminded me so much of a recipe that I wanted to share it with you (see below), and number two is that doing something so ‘mundane’ as redecorating has triggered such huge changes in other areas of my life.

Even before we came to look at the house in December 2008 I took in instant disliking to the living room. The walls were an orange-salmon colour, and the wooden floor and ceiling had an orange tint to them from age, so that the overall effect was, well, rather orange!

However, since we had more urgent projects to take care of when we bought the house, changing this livable, but hideous, room wasn’t a major priority. I realize now that it should have been. Even though we used the room (mostly in the evenings) neither of us actually enjoyed being there, and if Christoffer wasn’t in there, then I would prefer to sit at my desk in my studio than sit in a boring orange room!

So one weekend, a few weeks ago, we could stand it no more, and by the following weekend we had already made a start on ‘project de-orange’. Even though we didn’t finished the project in one day, merely making a start sparked something in our lives. On a practical level, the little furniture that was in the living room (we hadn’t really made ourselves at home there, so there wasn’t much) was relocated during the renovations. But their new homes suited them so well, that suddenly our other rooms had a whole new feeling and function, and our house is consequently feeling more of a home.

But on a more subtle level, we noticed several changes. Firstly, we both felt that we had finally honoured ourselves and that we felt that we ‘deserved’ a nice room. This recognition of our self-worth has trickled into other areas of lives, and I know for sure that my tolerance towards things that don’t serve me well has reduced considerably, and I am making changes to ensure that I treat myself as well as I should.

Secondly, within the following few days opportunities somehow presented themselves to allow me to tick off several big things that had been on my ‘to-do list’ for months. It was really weird. I didn’t have to initiate anything all I had to do was accept the opportunities that we presented to me. And I am not going to even start on how good it feels, for example, to get my accounts in order, or get the car finally fixed and how clearing that mental clutter is allowing new things to grow.

And all these small things are in turn triggering other things inside me, so I feel that there are more exciting changes ahead, both at home and within my business!

The living room is nearly finished, but is still looking like a bit of a building site, so I can’t share any photo’s with you today. I admit that it is a bit trying living around a half-decorated room, but I have been using my techniques for making effective changes that I shared in April’s newsletter to keep me focused, and stop me loosing my enthusiasm.

What I can share with you, however, is that two of our walls are now such a beautiful colour that I just wanted to grab a straw and stick it into the paint bucket and slurp it all up. I haven’t become a paint junkie or anything, it’s just that it looks just like a gorgeous blueberry smoothie. Such a sexy, rich purple colour!

Blueberries are such brilliant a source of anti-oxidants and are just so tasty. I am very lucky because when they are in season, I can pick them from our neighbouring woods. I often munch on them during my walks with Pixie the dog, and she loves them too!

So, dear Reader, here is a recipe for a super quick, yummy and nutritious smoothie for you. Just remember to drink it and not smear it on your walls!

Blueberry Smoothie
Serves 2

2 cups nut milk (you can find a recipe for this in March’s newsletter)
1.5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 large bananas (you can use frozen ones for a super thick and creamy drink)
A pinch of vanilla powder, or a few drops of vanilla extract
Ice (if not using frozen fruit and berries)
Half an avocado (if not using frozen bananas and you want a richer smoothie)

Blend it all up and enjoy!

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As you may recall from a previous post, Christoffer and I had the pleasure of spending a day and night at a lovely spa the other weekend. It was a really lovely thing to do, and what I found interesting about the experience is that while the actual physical part of being at a spa is, of course, simply heaven, the simple act of being treated to something is equally as wonderful.

This is very exciting, because I don’t feel that the feeling of self-worth carries a price tag. The fact that the spa cost quite a bit of money wasn’t particularly relevant (lucky for us, our stay there was a gift from someone!). Of course, it was divine to use the luxurious facilities, but the fact that we had taken time off work, time away from our daily routines, in order to ‘treat’ ourselves was the most significant thing.

We may not have someone who will treat us to a stay at a spa. In fact, we may not always have someone who’s thoughtful enough to make us a cup of tea, to offer to make dinner, or give us a foot rub, so we need to be even more aware of gifting small things to ourselves.

It’s so easy for us to get swept up in the tidal-wave of life, whooshing along between work, household duties, family responsibilities, studies, growth…everything, that we can forget to just take time out and thank ourselves for all that we put into our existence.

For me, once I tasted this sense of the extra-ordinary, it left within me a glow of knowledge that for others to love and respect us, and value us even, we need to love, respect and value ourselves.

Yesterday, for probably the first time since I started work on my Miss Best projects last Autumn, I actually took a proper tea break. I made some tea, (and some raw treats, of course!), sat on the sofa (well away from my computer) and just took some time out. Apart from the minimal cost of the tea and chocolate treats, it didn’t cost me a penny. But damn! Did I feel like I had wrapped up an hour’s spa session and presented it to myself!

And I returned to my desk, relaxed, invigorated, productive, and feeling just a little silly that I don’t do this more regularly.

Inspired by this, I decided that it would be a lovely gift this morning to treat myself to some yoga before I did anything else. And so, when it was time for me to make my morning smoothie, and sit down at the computer I felt really rather special. Like it was my birthday! Or a ‘Me’ day! Every day should be a ‘Me’ day! I think we are cable of giving more to others when we nurture ourselves with rest, relaxation, Life-Loving food, exercise and self -appreciation.

As Tinu Su once wrote: “I must prioritize my day to do things that nurture my soul before anything else.”

And so, fueled by all these inexpensive, easy-to-do little gifts of self love, my lovely Christoffer and I have decided to spend this weekend in our home version of a luxurious spa.

OK, so we don’t have a swimming pool, hot tub, or private chef, but we are going to treat ourselves to a liquid feast of fresh juices, smoothies, shakes and raw soups to energise our bodies. We are – or at least I am – also going to enjoy doing more yoga, soaking my feet in my lovely foot bath that Christoffer’s sister gave me for Christmas, massaging our feet, walking in the forest with our dog.

I am also planning on trying out some natural, home made beauty treats such as hair masks, facial scrubs etc. This is where I would LOVE your input. If you have any that you can recommend, please post them below.

I am really excited about this weekend. I am very interested in what this experience will trigger, and to see if I can continue with my little gifts of self-love.

l will let you know how this weekend of relaxing self-love goes in a future blog post. In the meantime, have a fantastic weekend, full of little treats. And do let me know your favorite home-made natural body treatments, below!

Oh, and I would love to take this opportunity to let you know about a yummy, introduction to raw food class that I am holding near Stockholm on 24th April. Perhaps this is a prefect opportunity to give yourself a gift of self-love? Please visit this page to find out more!

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As you know I love to share my recipes with you, and I usually blog about food that I have recently been eating. Since my last blog, however, I have been eating – or rather drinking and slurping – mostly green smoothies and green raw soups. I am not going to share those with you today as I have done so on a few occasions and I do rather believe there is more to life than smoothies and soups, even if they do make me feel satisfied, energetic, zingy and balanced.

I would like to share, however, a little of what I have been feeding my mind the past week or so. Christoffer has recently bought and devoured the book ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss. On his recommendation, I too gobbled it up as quickly as I could and found it most helpful and inspiring.

As the title suggests, the book provides helpful, and often humorous, tips and case studies of how to make your work days more efficient to advance towards the ultimate goal of working just four hours a week, but with at least the same – if not higher- relative income and preferably from remote locations, to enable you to travel the world (if you so wish), or do other fun things while still either working as an employee or as an entrepreneur.

What struck me while reading the book are the similarities between this approach to working-life and Life-Loving food. The initial similarity is the goal. For the 4-hour work week (4HWW) it is to free your self from spending most of your days having to earn money to have instead the time, energy and love to do things that bring you and others joy, such as traveling, learning languages or a new sport, helping others, spending time with your family, or spending your days doing what you are really passionate about e.g making music, art or gardening. To love life.

I have had the pleasure of briefly enjoying the life Ferriss describes while we were in Costa Rica. For a few weeks, Chris and I worked remotely/freelance. We spent a few hours a week working from the hammock in the above photo and the rest of the time learning Spanish, snorkeling, chilling, drinking from fresh coconuts, and planning our lives. I can certainly recommend this as a life-goal!

(If you want a great place to stay in Costa Rica, go to Cashew Hill Jungle Cottages in Puerto Viejo. This is where we stayed for 5 weeks, and had the best time thanks to great owners of this establishment.)

The goal of bringing more Life-Loving Food into your life – apart from the obvious fact that it tastes amazing – is to bring you health, energy and joy. If you spend less time (or preferably, no time) feeling tired, ill, depressed, moody, bloated and blurgh, then you will have time, energy and love to do the things that are actually fun, like the examples in the above paragraph.

Ferriss introduces/reminds us of Pareto’s law. Vilfredo Pareto (1843-1923), a ‘wily and controversial economist-cum-sociologist’, demonstrated the highly uneven distribution of wealth in society where 80% of the wealth and income was possessed by 20% of the population. This 80/20 principle, as it is also known, can be found almost everywhere and in business and even our lives the ratio of output to input is (roughly) 80/20.

Therefore, Ferriss encourages us to look at our businesses to see where the majority of the income comes from. Some may find, for example, that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of their customers. The remaining 80% of customers can be high maintenance and un-profitable and so Ferriss encourages us to spend as little time as possible on these customers, and to certainly not spend money and effort marketing towards them.

It would be interesting to analyse our lives and our health with the same principle in mind. What foods bring me the most energy? (And by this I dont mean calories. I mean energy left over after digestion that can be expended doing other things.) I believe our health (and indeed our lives) reflect not just what we do or eat but what we don’t do or eat.

For example when it comes to physical ill-health (a negative output), someone may find that they are mostly eating healthy food e.g 80% but if they are still filling up on steak and chips, bread (gluten), booze, coffee and dairy products for the remaining 20% they may find that 80% of their discomfort stems from the 20% of the unhealthy foods they are eating. The solution? To cut out those 20% of foods that you may feel you ‘need’ but which don’t actually serve you. It’s amazing that even though we feel that ‘it’s only one cup of coffee, or one bacon sandwich’ how much of an effect it can have on our health; even it is just for one day. I know myself, I have done the same. One cup of coffee out of a whole day’s intake of food and drink (5%) can make me feel 95 % crap! Which is I why I will never drink more than the very occasional sip of coffee.

Similarly we may find that 20% of the people we spend time with (family, friends, partners, customers, bosses or colleagues) bring us 80% of our joy and well-being, while the remaining 80% may be high maintenance people who don’t bring anything positive to your relationship. Surely it is better then to avoid those 80% life-suckers and invest our time and love in the life-enrichening 20% and have time left over for other pursuits!

Something else that struck me as similar is other people’s reactions to both goals. Many people are suspicious of both the 4HWW and Life-Loving (vegan/raw) Foods. ‘Surely if it were that simple everyone would do it!’ I have come across more than my fair share of skeptics who refuse to consider the link between diet and life style with ill health. And not just that, many don’t believe that we can feel fantastic in our body and minds if we give ourselves the chance.

And I myself have been victim to the conditioning that the only option in our work lives it to trudge away putting in all your waking hours in a job you don’t much care for, with retirement as the final goal to bring joy and free time.

Both Life-Loving Foods and the 4HWW are long-term investments in your life, but both can produce immediate results which is both encouraging and motivating. By adding healthy foods to your life and cutting out unhealthy ones (even in small amounts to begin with) will bring some immediate positive results. Likewise, if you go on one of Ferriss’ proposed email diets and ensure you only check your mail twice a day, for example, you will immediately free up both time and mental energy.

In addition, even if you don’t feel you can incorporate 100% Life-Loving Foods in your life, or structure your business or working life as an employee according to the 4HWW, you can still benefit by adopting just a few healthy foods or tips from Ferriss.

So today, I encourage you to look at your life and see what brings you 80% of productivity, good health, love joy and laughter. Focus your energy and time on these things and see if you can make a start to cut out the offending 80% dead weight.

I for one will be dissecting my life to see how I can make it more efficient so that I can do more pleasurable things like writing e-books, and developing other fun things to help others love their lives. Speaking of which my e-book ‘Loving Life – Loving Desserts’ will be available for sale in the next few weeks’ I am super excited and will let you know when I have a little preview for you! In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Check out ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss here >> and here:

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As you probably know, I am in the process of writing a recipe book. To be honest I had hoped that it would have been finished by now but during the past few months I have been feeling some big shifts in my development which I haven’t been able to put on the shelf for later.

When I first launched Miss Best I wasn’t totally sure of my direction. I knew what my passions and skills were (food, design, writing) so I felt that in order to take the first small steps towards working with things I love, I needed to just start somewhere, even if from an external eye it didn’t look very focused.

Over the past couple of months, I have really felt the pull to focus on sharing my food and recipes and knowledge of health related topics with others and have been spending a lot of time working on getting clear in my head what exactly I have to offer so that I can communicate this to the world with more clarity.

Well, I am extremely excited to finally reveal my new focus to you today. This is what’s new:

Loving Life – Loving Food – these are the words that reflect what Miss Best is about.

I believe that what we eat is closely linked not to just our physical health but indeed to all areas of our lives. To be able to love your life you need to be well and healthy and feel clear-headed and balanced. You need to love your food and your life, and your food needs to love you and your life. It’s about Life-Loving Food! Read more here.

I have finally named my first recipe e-book and can reveal that it is called…*drum roll*… Loving Life – Loving Desserts. I really love this name as it represents so much of what my food is about. Again, it’s about loving life and loving food (desserts) and it’s about food that loves life: Life-Loving Desserts!

My website has been updated to reflect my new focus and I would love you to go visit and let me know what you think. I have also used some of the beautiful photos that will be appearing in Loving Life – Loving Desserts. I am super happy with them as I really do think they represent my food well!

I will shortly be sending out a monthly newsletter to bring you yummy recipes, links to my weekly blog posts, super helpful tips, interesting facts, inspiration and exciting news. You can sign up for my free newsletter on my site.

You can also sign up for email updates of my blog posts. Just fill in the form at the top right hand side of this page.

Of course, the Miss Best site is a work in progress and I haven’t yet added all the information and tips that I want to, so please pop back again for another visit sometime soon.

In the mean time I wish you a wonderful weekend and would like to share with you this yummy recipe for a creamy, tasty healthy drink. Serve it in cocktail glasses and join me in a toast to my new adventure and to yours.

Love and chocolate-dipped strawberries,
Miss Best xx

Creamy Frozen Melon Drinkie
Serves 2

This shake is 100% melon but it’s so creamy it’s hard to believe there is no nut milk in there. Make sure your melons are nice and ripe! (oooh-er!!)

2 C honeydew or cantaloupe melon
1 C frozen honeydew or cantaloupe melon

Blend together and serve in decadent glasses.

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My Love Christoffer has been engaged in a very cool personal experiment. Since August he has adopted one new routine per month to work towards improving his health, fitness and well-being.

The first one was to get up at 5am (!) in order to have time in the mornings for things he wants to do before leaving for work. So now he gets up, takes Pixie Dog for a nice walk in the forest, does some yoga and weight-bearing exercises, and works on his personal projects before heading off for the day. I am super proud of him. He is the first to admit that he has not previously been one for sticking at things. After the initial enthusiasm wears off the good habits get left at the wayside. But now he gets on with it, and as each month passes he has got in to a good routine, and each month adds something positive to his daily life.

His latest ‘good habit’ is doing push-ups. You can read about it here.

But I wonder how people react to such a blog post. Just like when someone Tweets or Facebooks that they are on a juice feast, running marathons, or succeeding in balancing productivity with relaxation. Is your first reaction ‘Yeah, nice for you, no need to brag about it. You want a medal or something’? Or do you think ‘ Wow!, good for them. Sounds like a great idea…I wonder how I would benefit from trying that.’ Maybe you feel a mixture of the both: an initial recoil, small feelings of jealousy perhaps. Then maybe you realise that hell, if they can do it so can you. And you go dig out your running shoes and look up that recipe for a yummy healthy smoothie.

I think it’s OK to feel a little negative at first, as long as you try to recognize why you want to put down their achievement. Are you perhaps making a comparison that if they are getting healthier, fitter, happier then it makes you less healthy, fit, happy? Does it remind you of a time when you tried to get in to a good habit but ‘failed’?

What would be most useful is if you can progress and be inspired by what they do. OK, so you may not be able to run a marathon straight away, but neither did they. Look at Christoffer’s chart in his blog post – he wasn’t too impressed by his initial results, but every day he gets better and better. And for the record, I can actually see the positive changes in his body. And even better is his sense of achievement and increasing well-being.

So please do try and take those small steps towards your goal, whatever it may be – you will get there! And along your journey you will doubtlessly inspire others too.

Now, where are those running shoes?

Image: said_w

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When we moved to our house a few months ago I needed to acquire a desk. I had a look around for second hand ones but nothing came up that I wanted or wasn’t a ridiculously long drive away, so after a month of looking I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer (as I needed a desk to work on) and so went to IKEA.

As I was putting together my lovely new desk I got to a point where the thingy had to be put in the whatsit, but it really didn’t want to fit. So I just pushed it harder. And then, begrudgingly, it did eventually fit. But then I reliased that it wasn’t actually meant to go there, and I had to remove the thingy that I had managed to jam into the whatsit pretty firmly. Silly, Miss Best! Double silly Miss Best as this happened twice. It was only after the second time that I realised that I had accidentally skipped 2 pages of the instruction leaflet. Figuring this out made it much somewhat easier to get things into place as they should.

But while I sat there on the floor, surrounded by bits and bobs, and tools and packaging, I couldn’t help but compare my little flat-pack project to a bigger project called Life. It reminded me of a time in my life when I thought I wanted something. I had to struggle really hard to get it, and obviously when I did get it, it did not make me content as it wasn’t the life for the real, authentic me. And so I had to deconstruct my life, and start from scratch. That was during my twenties, and now I am 32 and finally feel that I am beginning to live the life I want and need, but I do feel like I have missed 2 pages in the instruction leaflet.

I was brought up with a slightly mainstream attitude to education, work and life, and it took me many years to figure out that mainstream life wasn’t for me. I know that part of life is the journey, but I do almost wish that I had been saved those non-authentic years so that I could have more joyful living behind me. Of course, I can console myself by saying that if we don’t have those painful times to compare with, we don’t appreciate the good times as much.

I am, however, hugely consoled and inspired by young people who can see that their lives lie along a less ordinary path and have the courage to follow it. I recall reading about a teenager who had been home educated and instead of sitting GCSEs (the exams that are sat in the UK around the age of 16) she chose to follow her joy and studied to become a massage therapist. So while her peers were stressing about exams, university, jobs, she already had the skills to earn money doing something she loved. Fabulous! And of course she is free to sit exams, and go to university should she change her mind. But she (and her parents) could see that there is not just one way and that we are all different.

So let’s not pass on our fear of being ‘different’ to the next generations. Let’s encourage them to develop themselves in the areas they really enjoy. Oh, and if any of them end up making instruction leaflets for IKEA, please ask them to design them so that the pages don’t stick together so easily!

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This week I received my new business cards from the printer. I just LOVE them. The benefit of designing them myself is that I get them to look exactly how I want. It’s a bit like life really, isn’t it? When we know how we want it to look all we have to do is figure out how to create that look!

Get in touch if you would like me to design you some too!
Email: hello(at)miss-best.com

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Today is my last day working as a Graphic Production Coordinator for a company here in Stockholm. Since April 2008 I have been working on the non-creative side (working from other people’s designs) of producing templates for web-to-print services (Our customers, for example, offer a service whereby you can quickly and easily put together printed material such as brochures or business cards on-line, without the need for a designer).

Needless to say it wasn’t really what I had applied to do, and despite doing very well in learning the specialized software with very little training or support it has not been a very creative or fulfilling job. But it served a purpose at the time, and I really do believe that I wasn’t meant to immerse myself in this job for too long as it was distracting me from a more magical, fulfilling and authentic life.

Last summer, after spending too many stressful and frustrating hours out of my precious days on this work, I asked if I could reduce by working hours to 60% so that I could have the space and energy to start navigating my life back to the plan I had made several years previously; namely to be able to spend more time working with the things that truly bring me joy, and preferably working from home, or at least locally to avoid expensive, time consuming and joyless commuting.

Fortunately, the company I have been working for has been pretty relaxed, unlike some of the places I have worked where there has been a formal dress code, and where I would get slapped wrists for being literally 2 minutes late for work, despite frequently putting in unpaid overtime! Maybe if this company had been more draconian, I would have quit earlier, but I almost got comfortable in my daily subtle drudgery. It is frighteningly easy to quickly slip into the routine of commute – work – commute – eat, then aim to distract ourselves from the sickening truth that we are forced to press ‘repeat’ the next day, and the next, until Saturday comes when we are left standing stranded in the wasteland of our ‘free time’ unused to being able to direct two whole days of our life as we please. Well, free apart from the chores we need to carry out in order to support the following week’s toil: ironing clothes, making lunch boxes, going shopping to buy comfort food and drink that that will get us through the working days…

Thankfully since going down to part time (I will write a blog post one day to share how I could afford to work less) it wasn’t as bad as all that…but the memories of several years of working full-time in soul-shriveling jobs still stings me today. So now, at the age of 32, I finally feel that I am beginning to see the path that I wish I saw during my university days. University; what a scam! As teenagers we are told: ‘Get an education, and if you knuckle down you will soar to the top of your field, being rewarded for your hard work with support, praise and promotions’. Wrong! Life wasn’t like that for me or most of the people I know in those almost random jobs one gets. It’s as Michael Cera’s character, George Michael, says in the series ‘Arrested Development’ as he panics the night before an exam: “If I fail at Math then I wont get a chance at being happy by working hard for the rest of my life”.

I truly hope that you wont recognize this pattern as you have been financially rewarded for doing the things you love, and that you have maintained your authentic self and path. I hope that when you hear the line from the film ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’: “From now on your name is no longer David Webb, It’s Jason Bourne. Welcome to the programme…” you don’t flinch and twitch and flick nervously through your mind between images of uncomfortable office wear; pointless meetings with dull and moaning co-workers; idiotic bosses; packed commuter trains; and a slowly deflating heart.

For me – who did flinch at that line – this is a really exciting start. But it has taken ten years since entering the ‘working world’ to get to this point. And this point is only the equivalent of deciding to go to the map shop to buy the map! I know which map I want to buy and I roughly know which navigational tools can help me get there, but it’s going to be slightly experimental as to how I move towards a life of joyful work. I do know though that, where ever I end up, this is the right thing for me. I hope you will enjoy what I can share from my journey!

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Through listening regularly to a BBC 2 radio show I came to learn of Sarah Outen’s challenge to become the first woman, and youngest and fastest person, to row solo from Western Australia to Mauritius. A journey of 3,100 miles across the Indian Ocean rowing her tiny boat ‘Serendipity’ “up to 12 hours a day under a scorching sun, riding 30ft waves, battling winds and currents, sharks, capsizes and shipping traffic.” Just reading those words from Sarah gives me the tingles. They are just words, but we can try and visualize her experience. However, set our imaginations free and I am sure we still have no idea of the intensity of this journey.

On Tuesday 3rd August, after 124 days at sea, 24 year old Sarah made her very rough but successful landing on the island of Mauritius, thus achieving her goal to enter the record books as well as helping raise money for charity in memory of her late father.

Following Sarah with her regular chats on the radio show when she always seemed upbeat and positive despite her progress, and through her blog, then finally hearing of her arrival thrills and chills me to such a great level I had to take a moment and ask myself why.

On a basic level the thought of being alone in the middle of the ocean at the mercy of the elements and fellow sea dwellers such as sharks and beautiful but giant whales sends my head spinning almost as much as when I try and grasp the concept of the vastness that lies beyond our galaxy. But on a deeper level I am moved by the challenge she set herself. It reminds me of the adventures that we all embark on. These adventures may not be as perhaps as huge or as physically risky as Sarah’s journey but they probably feel to us just as daunting and exciting.

To me, her journey at sea mirrors those times when you are on your adventure; some days you are smiling up at the blue sky, gazing in marvel at the things around you, rowing along with the tide almost effortlessly. A flat sea bringing wafts of foreign and exciting things. But like Sarah you also experience those times when the sea is raging, the sky is black and you can’t even try and plod onwards. Your only option is to just drop anchor to try and not get swept too far away from your path.

We are often alone on our own personal adventures, and though sometimes only we can make the decision (on either a conscious or sub-conscious level) whether we have the balls to continue with our adventure, the hero/ine of your story will always have the equivalent of Sarah’s radio back-up. Though they are not in the boat with you, your support crew of family and friends – people you have met in person and on line, and those who you don’t even know exist but are rooting for your success anyway – will be there for support, motivation and to send out the search boats should you send up a distress flare. I am sure that knowing this brought Sarah to those safe shores. Knowing this maybe even gave her the strength to come up with her personal challenge, put it into action and to slip in to the ocean in her boat on the first day of her voyage.

This was a huge adventure to embark upon but it should not overshadow our own challenges. What was the biggest adventure you have set sail on? Does it make you tingle now thinking of your journey: of the unknown, the actual voyage and the outcome (be it as you planned or not)?

I am sure that this adventure was just something Sarah had to do. Perhaps in order to progress in her life and to grow. I would be very surprised and impressed if I did anything on that level (I am pretty reserved when it come to physical danger) but my own journeys have been just as big to me. And the exciting thing is that when one has journeyed along one adventure and jumped nervously outside of one’s comfort zone the next adventure is probably even bigger and perhaps even more awe inspiring.

We may well take time in between each adventure to appreciate our efforts (regardless of the outcome), re-assess our lives and our ways of thinking and doing things, and to gain the inspiration and energy for the next challenge. Sarah will be writing a book about her experience before she plans her next challenge, and I for one am looking forward to what can only be an inspiring and thrilling read.

Wishing you courage and joy on your journeys, you wonderful spirited adventurer! Give me a wave when we cross paths out there in the vast sea of life.

Read about Sarah’s journey here: http://www.sarahouten.co.uk/

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There once was an old man. In his youth he was blessed with a gifted craft. He made beautiful furniture from the wood he found on his daily walks through the forest. His craft gave him immense joy and he spent all of his free time creating gorgeous pieces with wonderful intricate decorations. His home was full of the fruits of his talent, and anyone who came to visit looked in awe at the chairs, tables, shelves, large bowls and even child size benches. ‘You must make me a chair’ they would say. Some even suggested he rent that workshop which had recently become vacant in the market square. ‘People would come from far and wide to buy your furniture’ they would exclaim ‘for they truly are the most exquisite pieces’.

But the then young man would brush off their sincere compliments with a wave of his hand. ‘Bah’ he would say. ‘I am no trained craftsman- anyone could make these things if they tried’. But not everyone could do so – no matter how hard they wanted, as not everyone possessed this wonderful gift. Other gifts they would indeed have, but not the gift that he had. His cumulative knowledge of the local wood, and the possibilities certain tools provided him with together with his limitless imagination meant that his gifts were unique.

To earn his bread, the man worked in a coal mine. He did not like his work. The physical conditions were harsh. The darkness dampened his mood and could on occasion quash his creativity. The pay was poor and his boss did not appreciate the effort that was put in every day by his workers.

‘But you could earn so much more money selling your furniture’ his friends would say when Christmas came and the man hung his head in shame at turning up and the village celebrations empty handed because of his empty pockets. Every year the reply was the same: ‘But what if no one bought my furniture. What if …’

Family and friends of this talented man could see his spirits become diluted with every year that passed chipping away at the dark, hard coal. The difference between the man on a work day and one a free day was like night and day. In his home workshop he was alive. His wood spoke to him, every knot had a life. With every piece he created his talent blossomed further. ‘Why don’t you leave your work in the mines and sell your furniture instead?’ they questioned. ‘It is a tragic loss that your house is full of these beautiful pieces and no one except you gets to appreciate them.’ ‘People need heat. People need coal. If I don’t help give them coal then, why, they may as well burn my furniture to warm their houses’ was his reply. ‘But what about their souls? Will your gifts not warm them as much?’ But every time he would cut short the conversation with a gruff ‘bah!’.

As the years drifted on, so did his friends. No longer could they stand the dark moods, the refusal of invitations so that he could spend his free time doing the one thing that brought light in to his world. And so by the time the man was old and retired from the coal mine, he was alone. Finally he had all the time he needed to work on his furniture. Time that was now essential since he had to build a large barn to accommodate all the pieces he made and hid away from others.

One year, upon hearing of these lovingly crafted pieces, the king had sent for him. ‘Bah!’ grunted the man to the messenger ‘if my chairs are not fit enough for the cobbler, the baker, or even the priest, they are not fit for the rear of his Highness’. ‘But his Highness wants one of your chairs. His Highness thinks that your chairs are good enough for him’. ‘Bah…’

And so as the man spent his retired years making and staring at his furniture, bent double thanks to decades of chipping away in the dark mines, his soul began to dissolve. For while he had spent his life underground, his soul had gradually been chipped away, turning from light to darkness. And soon the old man could no longer love even his craft.

The one thing he had left – and which he had to continue with if he was to eat – was gardening. He planted the seeds with the tiniest piece of joy that he had rationed himself and almost half smiled as he watched them grow, but when it came to harvest time he waited and waited, just a few days more, ‘perhaps then they will be bigger, juicer, guaranteed to be ripe’; until the breeze brought the first signs of autumn. A slight chill in the air. A small shift from green to orange.

It was then he was forced to harvest the fruits of his labour. In his youth his favorite was rocket – a green plant known as arugula or ruccula in other lands. He carefully snipped away at the delicate green leaves and prepared a large plate of his garden’s gifts. He almost felt a tingle of pleasure as he lifted a handful of rocket to his mouth. But the rocket was now too old. It had past its best. It looked alive but it was bitter as hell.

For the first time in his adult life the man cried realizing that he had wasted his life in the mines while his home was full of furniture that was the real manifestation of his love. With the wisdom the years bring he could see that his ’sacrifice’ was not even worth it. The coal he mined was now burned and forgotten. His gifts, however, would have lasted an eternity.

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