Rays of Light

As I walked outside in the morning, the rays of light blinded my eyes. It was so bright - so inviting. And for the first time this year I could sense it, the Spring is about to break forth. I´m thrilled about it, since people here up North have to deal with the intensity of dark days for couple of months. We barely see the sun at all from december to february, but when the sun comes out - people tend to come out from their "closets" as well and they might even smile a little. :)

Some research might show that the "wintertime mindset" has everything to do with our well-being and I bet it is true to some extent(and I do believe in positive thinking especially during the winter). It´s just that I love light and at least for me, it brightens my inner life a whole lot as well. Light ignites new hope and I want to encourage you to take hold of hope for the next season as well. Even if the winter would have been "a dark" season for you, it is time for the Light to burst into every area of our lives bringing new hope and life. Every spring I get reminded of a Scripture verse that I hold on to; "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  I´m glad winter season is swiftly coming to an end it is time for Spring and new things!

I bought this white winter coat from Bik Bok`s sale and thought I would only wear it with my sportier clothes, but it has actually become one of my go-to coats. I´ve never had a white coat, but I actually like it a lot(it brings light as well, since almost everyone over here has a black coat..). The bag is also from Bik Bok, the jeans skirt from Zara and I think they both go well with the coat. :)

Happy Easter time to all of you lovelies! 

Intricately Yours,

Marjo

Photos by Tim Kiukas

 

 

 

S I R E N A

"He is absolutely enchanting and powerfully romantic.

It seems shocking or over exaggerated, especially when I see Him from my places of hopelessness and chronic despair. SO...

Today I have chosen to face every enemy that suggests that God is not "that good."

Today, I will leave behind the ocean of of impossibility to embrace the One who clothes me with gowns made for queens. And...

After I´ve danced with Him and memorized His choreography of goodness I will come back to this ocean of despair, face it, and destroy it with the violent beauty that He has bestowed on me."

-Introduction to the movie Sirena-

I had the privilege to be a part of a short-movie called Sirena, while I lived in California(there´s a link to the movie in the end of the blog). I absolutely loved creating this piece of art - from co-directing, script-writing, photography, styling, editing to sound design. I actually did all of the sound design and even though it took a lot of time, I really enjoyed geeking and playing with sounds! The director and producer, Annette, did most of the photography but I took some too(like the ones above). Making Sirena was such a blast but also challenging. What happened during the process and what I´ve kept in my heart during these years, is, that everything is possible when you just believe. It takes a lot of work, time, effort, courage, money, inspiration, imagination and childlikeness to actually make movies. But when you love something you do, you really don´t care about the cost. This short-movie wouldn´t have been possible without all the effort people put in it, I´m so proud of all of them and the outcome. Even though I don´t have as much time as I would want to for creative expressions right now, I still hold on to every dream of mine and do what I can in this season(like post these projects I´ve been a part of). :)

I present to you dear friends, Sirena.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGMruGZCIAk&feature=youtu.be

Intricately Yours,

Marjo

Real and Raw

Lovely ones, It´s been a while! I wasn´t planning on having a month long break, but I had to prioritize my time; at the moment this blog is just for fun when I have time and energy. In this post I´ll be sharing my heart and talking about some of my recent experiences from last month. The beginning of February was a bit rough, but now I´m back in the joyful track again. :)

During January, I feel like I was "in a bubble" - everything seemed to flow so easily and I was super excited about this new year. It seemed like everything was possible! I was motivated and inspired(and I still am, just need to remember to take the time to rest so inspiration flows). But then in February, it was like I hit a wall. I got an overload of stress and I should´ve known, I saw the signs ahead of time... I had very stressful days at work, I hadn´t slept enough, joined a new business in the spur of the moment and the list goes on and on - in the other words, I had wayyy too many things going on at the same time which I thought I could handle. NOT. I wish I had stopped and taken proper rest before things got a bit out of hand.

Don´t know about you, but for me, It´s hard to admit that I wouldn´t have it all together all the time. Of course we all wish we had it all together all the time, but when we don´t, we need to learn to be vulnerable and to ask for help from others, even if it would only mean to listen and to be there for one another. For me, I´ve accustomed to cope a lof of things on my own during the years(still waiting for my knight in shining armor). But I know I can´t do this life on my own(I know God is with me always but I believe people should be representatives of God) and I don´t want to. I believe we were created to be part of a family, living in complete honesty and transparency. It´s hard for people to really know you if you don´t open up your heart(it´s a risk everyone has to take). Willing to let people into your life also requires humbleness. Of course you better choose your people well and find the ones you can trust. Anyways, I´ve realized over and over again how much we need people that love and encourage us in our lives and how humbling and freeing it is.   

At least for me, It´s many times easier to "escape the reality" than to face it and deal with it, let alone let people know I´m not doing that well. In the beginning of February, for couple of days, I was so exhausted I drowned myself into Netflix and just ate chocolate after work. Now when I think about it, it sounds so silly, but in that moment it was like hell broke loose. I thought that the state of my mind would pass and I would just move on and nobody needed to know. And don´t get me wrong, sometimes it´s ok to watch Neflix and eat chocolate, if your heart is in a good place(not if we just try to numb ourselves instead of facing issues). I believe here comes the importance of letting safe people into our lives to speak the truth to our current situations. If we are not transparent to the people around us, it´s easy to get away with what you are dealing with instead of facing it. Of course we have to be willing to face the things we are dealing with, but it helps a lot when we open up to people. When we can´t see clearly, we need people to speak into our lives and lift us up. I don´t know what would I have done without some of my precious friends who listened to me and spoke truth in love to my heart. Many times when people get stressed out, they tend to be too tired to get hold of their thoughts and that happened to me -  I realized I had started to listen to lies about my life but fortunately people around me broke off those lies and spoke truth to my heart.

We all have different ways to cope with stress. It´s not that I wouldn´t have known eating chocolate and watching Netflix excessively doesn´t help, but sometimes we do things to just cope with stress, aye? But what are some healthy ways to cope with stress? I´ve read a lot of self-help books, studied how to live a healthy&succesful lifestyle and even done life-coaching, but for the most of us - applying all of that info into our lives, would you agree with me, it´s not as easy. Most of us know too much but haven´t put that info into practise. I´m actually just throwing out some thoughts, I´m in the journey and process as well. I´d love to hear your thoughts on coping with stress in a healthy way. Do you exercise? Share your heart with friends? How do you deal with self-condemnation(usually if I know I should have coped differently, I easily go under self-condemnation)? How do you rest? 

I guess one of the reasons why people, including myself, don´t want to ask for help, has to do with pride. Who would want to be "a burden" or seem weak/needy? But NONE of us were created to do this life alone. Of course we need to do our part and take responsibility of our lives but I also believe we need to find the right people that speak the truth in love to us and that stand by us no matter what. I believe that, that is one of the ways what real Love looks like as well. The more we get hold of how Loved we are, the less we listen to lies. A lot of times we need people to be the messengers of Love. 

Lastly, the photo is a bit older but the woolly neck warmer fits perfectly to the current weather here in Finland. It has been freezing cold(-10 to -20°C), so everything woolly is needed. Also, if you wonder, I didn´t knit the neck warmer but bought it from a thrift store, so I have no idea who made it. Isn´t it adorable?! :)

Wishing you a hope-filled beginning of March!


Intricately Yours,

Marjo

Photos by Tim Kiukas