Illustrator: ANA FORJAN
Summer is here!
Summertime is about release for me. It is my way of preparing for a ‘new year’. It is my goal-setting time. I do my New Year resolutions in the summertime. You see, my year finishes in August and starts in September. Maybe because I was born in September. I don’t know why I live like this… I might as well put a Christmas tree on the boat.
During summer I exercise more, I get more organized, I spend more time with my family and friends, I read more books, I travel more, I eat healthier…I simply get more things done. I consume all the energy that I accumulated during my winter sleep and rest.
Having a more active approach to work, health, and fitness is connected to the sun, at least to what I am concerned. I live life to the fullest in the summertime. I barely watch television during the summer. I stay focused, disciplined, and motivated throughout the summer. Of course, I get crazy and party hard as well, but that does not break up my big goals. On the contrary, it builds them up.
Now that I have become a mother, I educate my boys on how to use the summertime to their advantage. I am aware they will eventually copy, to a certain extent, what I have set as an example. I was never afraid to show them my failures and shortcomings as well as my strengths. As a mother, I am intense! I am tough on my boys. I yell a lot and I set boundaries way before others do. I am strict! Discipline is a big thing in our house but with a touch of humor.
During summertime, when school is out, I get to see what a good job I did as a mother with my children. If they want to spend time with me, I have succeeded. That is enough for me! And so far, they think I am funny and smart. This will probably change…
Summer vacation with my family is a very active time. We live in a city with all the commodities that city life can offer. We leave stress and comfort behind, by getting on a boat and sailing. We practically live on a boat for a month, fish, and explore nature. Alone and with as little contact as possible with the civilization.
This direct contact with nature makes it possible for me to clean my soul during summer. For me it is not about a vacation, it is about a changing of a lifestyle. During summer we don’t see a car and most of the time we don’t have a cell signal. No Wi-Fi connection sometimes is very helpful. I get in contact with myself, with my God and everything stops. In the silence surrounded by nature, I can hear my divine self.
The best ideas I got were on an island in the middle of nowhere. The ideas we get as a family on our summer vacation more often become content for my new book. The constant making of stories is fun for us.
We also read a lot of books on a boat or an island. There is not much else to do. I don’t allow screen time during summer. ‘Find something else to do’, is what I tell my boys. Reading and storytelling is a way for us to connect on the level that everything is possible. Unrealistic becomes realistic. I try to tell my boys that everything in life is a story. A story that somebody invented it and is telling it! Therefore, invent and tell your own story to the world.
“If you can dream it, you can make it!” is what I live by.