Back

Happy Days in La Ventana | Day 351 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Dec 17, 2023· 2 minutes

What does it mean to be happy?

Often, we don’t stop to understand it while it is ongoing; we trot along and live, only to realize how much we had the moment we lost it.

Does it help to be nomadic?

Maybe.

I would say we have the advantage: We do not fall asleep. We keep moving, keep rocking the boat, keep deciding on what is the most important thing to do, and keep asking ourselves to pay attention.

Yet, I sometimes have to pinch myself. Here I am with my four children, my husband, and my lovely bonus-son-in-law, Erik, my daughter’s boyfriend. Here I am in the sunshine in the middle of the winter. Here I am, walking, talking, laughing. Here I am, healthy and happy.

And the sun is rising in the morning, opening the day with immense beauty, and doing the same in the evening as a goodnight kiss on the cheek by an angel.
In between, we get to play with the paddleboard, look at the fish, walk the beach, observe the birds, work with our podcasts, release another podcast, have conversations, laugh, and enjoy a movie night with popcorn.

Yup.

Happy days.

Don’t forget to pay attention. 

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

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 lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

See more images on Facebook

Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

Am I the right person to help you? You can book a free discovery call, and we'll talk and figure it out.

Listen to my podcasts

I share my knowledge and curiosity about family life and learning in my two podcasts.

Read my latest blogposts

A morning reflection from Budapest on trusting life’s intensity, receiving what we need, and surrendering to the beauty hidden in challenges. Read more
Barcelona wasn’t sunsets and music. It was rain—21 out of 23 days of it. It was getting sick, the dogs getting sick, and working on personal projects…Read more
Street art is such a bold and brave form, throwing it up there in the shared space, creating a comment or a decoration or a critique or a combination…Read more
Chess
Most parents struggle with video games in one way or another. I hear this question all the time. Video games and "screen time" are some of the most t…Read more
Barcelona wasn’t sunsets and music. It was rain—21 out of 23 days of it. It was getting sick, the dogs getting sick, and working on personal projects…Read more
A simple travel journal about how life is, and how it was exactly when we did a focus month in France. Read more
What is the price of unfreedom? How does managerialism control our work, childhood, and daily lives? Inspired by our conversation with Dennis Nørmark…Read more
We live by the stories, we can imagine, we understand through the lens of eyes of heroes and victims and witches and kings and everyone else from the…Read more
Montauban
In Finhan, where we live in February 2025, not much is happening. The church in the square strikes its hour, funnily enough, twice, so if you didn't …Read more