If you ask me: “Do you love life?”, I will certainly answer: “Yes of course!” Maybe you have the same answer. But let’s zoom in on the definition of love. Wikipedia defines love as an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. It’s a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection; and the “unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”. Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion, or as actions towards others based on affection. Well. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t meet all these criteria when it comes to my relation with life. Unselfish? Benevolent? Actions based on compassion? When I’m in a good mood, sure, not a problem. But I’m human, I’m not always in a good mood. And I can even get to the point where I despise life and, to be honest, myself. I can be narrow minded and selfish, I can be angry for the wrong reasons, I can act based on aversion. Until… always a moment later, something awakes me telling me to embrace that too with… love. And that’s the reason for this post. I would like to encourage you, like I encourage myself, to love it all. Good and bad, it all has meaning. Everything tells you something. It’s never for no reason. When you love life, love everything.

The more we need in life, the more complicated it gets. The need for things limits our openness and increases our dependency. It creates a cycle of tension, where we must counter balance everything in order to meet our needs. If however we need nothing, life can take us anywhere and everything would simply be another experience. The thing is, in our world we tend to rank experiences in terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. We only want the good ones, try to avoid the bad ones and there you have it: the need for things and it’s cycle of tension. So lets go back. Let’s look at the phrase: “I need nothing”. What you basically say is “Anything is welcome” and that does simplify life, doesn’t it? It creates space, peace of mind and sets you free to simply experience. And in experience, lies the beauty of life. As you will discover in this video even a ‘nearly useless odyssey’, creates an experience.

Life is a gift… I guess we’ve all heard that many times. And if you look beyond the hint of cliché that there is to this expression, and you take a minute to appreciate the finest moments of your life, I think we can agree that indeed life is a gift. But then, on a random rainy morning with a stressful day ahead, life is easily transformed from a gift into a burden. So, is life a gift yes or no? Yesterday, as I was pondering my day, it hit me. Life is always a gift, but you have dare to unwrap it. I mean, what good is a gift when you leave it unwrapped? We all know a sparkling diamond can be found in a dirty cloth. Just like a delightful experience might await you on a dreary monday. The wrapping may not be attractive, but it’s content can still be invaluable. So to experience life as a gift, you have to be willing to unwrap it. It’s the only way to discover what’s inside. If not joy, then certainly a learning opportunity. And maybe that’s what the gift of life is all about: to experience and learn.

Imagine a 4 year old wanting to ride a bike for the very first time. Having seen other people cycle seemingly without any effort, he thinks it’s going to be an easy ride. So he’s got it all mapped out. He made a plan and calls it plan A and it’s very clear: enjoy the wheels on steel! The possibility of falling and hitting the ground doesn’t even come to his mind. Until of course he sets a foot on the pedal and tries to make a move, he finds out he can’t cycle. Plan A: destroyed. Or… wait. No. His parents will teach their kid not to give up so quickly, for everything is learning process. They will tell him that it doesn’t matter how many times he falls down, as long as he gets up again. Easy to say, hard to practice. As we grow up, wanting to ride a bike turns into wanting to have a meaningful life. We want so many things. But we are easily disappointed when we don’t get what we want – or not in the way we want them. We’re lured into the belief of not being good, smart or beautiful enough etc.. We turn in this little kid that finds out that learning to ride takes time and effort. So when I saw this picture circling around the internet I just had to use it. And there must be a million ways (ok, 26 at least) to accomplish something. If not now, then later. Meanwhile? Enjoy the ride and… stay cool.

How do you choose to live your life? My dear friends, by now you know I love road trips. And the film you are about to see, is the road trip of all road trips. Besides truly stunning images, there is a voice-over that is not just talking to you. It is speaking to your heart. And it’s not just somebody speaking, it is the future! It’s real life, expressed in pure poetry. I say this often: give yourself the time. Do yourself a favor and watch this film from A to Z for it will make you feel good. The film was written, filmed and produced by Dan Riordan and his girlfriend Nina while traveling through Chile & Patagonia. They spent 5 weeks exploring this amazing country and this is how they chose to document it. What a life, what a life, what a life. And you too have an amazing life. When you document it, you will see.

Here’s a film that will touch your heart and make you feel all good. It’s about a man called Johnny Barnes. Come rain or shine, this 88-year-old Bermudian devotes six hours every day to an endearing traffic ritual that has made him one of the island’s most cherished citizens. You have to see it to understand why. Do yourself a favor and watch it entirely, for it’s truly inspiring. And ask yourself the question if maybe you can learn something from Johnny. I sure can.

Reality is a fluid concept. Never forget that. What seems real now, is surrealistic tomorrow. What seems unreal now, might be very real tomorrow. Play with this. The only thing that doesn’t change is the fact that everything is always changing. A problem now, is solved tomorrow. Or the day after. Or within a year from now. If you don’t have a problem? Don’t worry, you’ll get one. It doesn’t matter. It’s how you deal with what’s in front of you that matters. Reality is a construction, build on your view on things. On how you interpret them. Change your view, change your world. Just like that. And the best thing: it’s free and 24/7 at your disposal. The way you see reality, is how you create reality.