Back

The Lake and the present moment | Day 162 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jun 11, 2023· 3 minutes

I read about the book “Your stolen focus,” which got me thinking about my focus. How I hardly ever meditate anymore, and how my mind drifts (which is a good thing) and my focus dissolves (which is a bad thing).

In the beautiful Swedish summer, we are currently living in my husband's best friend's family house in Sweden, a former school, and a classic Swedish wooden home: Red with white windows. When we walk, the forest is rich and green, the landscape beautiful, with small houses and cute, calm cows and birds singing. In the afternoons, we have been driving to a nearby lake to swim. There is no end to how beautiful it is.

It has been lovely to enjoy life with friends, doing our thing. Swimming a bit in the lake, lying around in the sun, playing music, reading books.

One afternoon I was lying around all alone on the bathing bridge. Reminded of my lack of focus, I did a mindful exercise, which was very rewarding and spiritually interesting. I looked at the reflections in the water of trees and clouds, keeping my focus right there. Then the mind drifts; I am lost to the world, realize it and go back to the present moment. It was lovely. After a while, my husband joined. We saw the insects, the flowers, the fish, and a single snake swimming in the water. Oh, the silence. And the beauty. So soothing for the mind.

Little mindfulness and staying-in-the-present-moment exercises are good routines to pick up; I am already grateful for the book as I feel it puts me back on track.

We spent two lovely afternoons by the lake with Alexander and his daughter Ronja, and my sons' friend who joined us for the weekend, and Alexanders' partner Hannah.

Healing time in nature.

Immersed in the water with my children, sitting on the bridge with my daughter laughing, talking books with my son, doing a bit of yoga here and there, and learning new skills on my handpan.

On Sunday, they all left in the afternoon, and we had 3 hours before my sister and her family arrived.

Back-to-back Swedish happiness.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

More pictures on Facebook

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our life like this, and we get very happy when we get feedback from you. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

In the silent chapel, one message came clearly to me: Let peace fall upon you. In my life, it was my grandmother's words, and now God did a replay fo…Read more
Hope is not an illusion. Hope lifts us out of what is; hope is how we transcend. Not just spiritually but on all levels of life. When we dare to hope…Read more
It is so easy to be annoyed with other people, and it is a common trap to believe your perspective is proper and that others got it wrong. I sometim…Read more
Just hanging out is a great luxury. In the morning, we all did our thing: The teenagers went for a walk and a croissant at the vegan, gluten-free bak…Read more
Why do we travel to see churches we might forget? Why do we read books that might fade from our memory? Well. Because we are alive. Because the proce…Read more
Work is when we engage and take part. But the concept has become hollow, focused only on the monetary outcome. This is part of the suppression of wom…Read more
Sometimes I feel like a sheep when in big crowds of tourists. Yet at the same time, I am happy for all the other people who get to visit epic places …Read more
I am not particularly focused on my children learning world history. It is one of the many things that happen by itself while living a life with enou…Read more
Every week, write down the things we learned that week. I am sure I would gain a lot of peace of mind from doing such an exercise regularly. All loos…Read more