Old Hollywood Musicals

I have my parents to blame for this. I remember cozy evenings, the whole family watching a movie, and my father, annoyingly explaining the meaning of every scene and the biographies of a director or an actor. Old Hollywood musicals were the family’s favorites. The ones we all loved, without exception. My personal favourites were (and are) Singing in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which we watched again, and again. I LOVE the later and it always reminds me of Christmas (wait, there is an explanation), as for years, they would show this movie late on New Year’s Eve in the Spanish Public TV channel. They don’t do it anymore, but every time I watch it, it takes me back to old New Year’s Eves.

To connect with nature

I dream of spending some time to connect with nature and re-discover it. Really connecting. Getting up with sunrise and going to bed at sunset. Enjoying the long days of the summer. Resting and reflecting on the long winter nights. See the leaves fall. Really see them. Pause and look at the new flowers every spring morning. And then do it all again. Like Nature intended.

Finding books

For me, finding a book is one of the greatest pleasures in live. Of course, reading something from your favourite author is great. You know what you are getting and you know you like it. But there is something magical about discovering new authors, new themes, new worlds. I recently found The unknown errors of our lives in a exchange book in a hostel in Ecuador. I have never heard of the author and I have never heard of the book. I normally prefer novels to short stories. But I picked it up (I think it was the title what drew me to it), I opened it on a random page and that was it. I read it in a day, and I loved every story. The characters, and their errors, will stay with me for a long time.

What blogging means to me

I have seen several posts on what blogging means lately. You can read what blogging means to Secrets of a butterfly and follow the links that her post inspired. Reading them, I realized that blogging was also part of ‘Some of those things’ I really enjoy. And I discovered it very recently!
I thought about starting a blog at the end of my year off work. Almost a year ago, I took a year off to travel around South America with my boyfriend. South America had always been my dreamland. Getting to know, for real, the cities and places I have dreamed so much about has been an incredible experience. Everything I hoped for, new experiences I had never imagined, and much more.
Towards the end of the year, though, we started thinking a lot about coming back. About what we wanted to do next and what we had learned. I have changed this year. I have new plans and new ideas on how to shape my life. I want a simpler life with fewer commitments and more time to do what I really want. More time for creativity. More time to pursue my real passion, writing. And that’s where blogging came in. I started blogging as a commitment to keep writing. Not trying to write the perfect novel, the perfect story, just writing … for now.
As always, I’ve probably ended up doing too much. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to have a blog in English or Spanish. Sometimes I write in one, sometimes in the other. So I now have Some of those things in English and Blanca en la la luna in Spanish. The style is completely different and it has been amazing to see how using a different language changes my writing.
There were other things I wanted to do. I want to be more ecological, I want to help others. Volunteering in Ecuador has really inspired me to do more things for others, and has also taught me that good intentions are not enough, you need to be organized and think carefully about why and how you are going to help. But the main thing I have learnt is that small things make a big difference. And so I started a blog called Together we’ll save the world. It’s an optimistic blog, about all those small things that we are all already doing to help, be it volunteering, or recycling.
Finally, I wanted to explore my creative side, not only in my writing, but in small craft projects, in my collages and cuttings collections. So I created Cuttings on a blog, where I list things I like, things that inspire me, and where, in the future, I’ll post my drawings and collages.
It may seem like a lot, but so far, I’m loving it. I have discovered a whole new world in blogs. Creative people with interesting ideas and beautiful images. A community based on sharing ideas, projects, and experiences. A world of learning and discovering. New things. Old ideas that you have forgotten. A whole new world of possibilities.
That’s what blogging means to me. A commitment to my new life.