A new journal. Usually it takes me about a quarter of a year to fill it up (especially now that I am back to writing) so this new one will be busy, dark and heavy – difficult times ahead but also a lot of self-exploration with the new school so I found this Moleskine quite fitting.

I am staying with the book-themed one for additional inspiration, adding a bit of washi tape and some vintage stickers to the mix. That also means I can prepare all the pages in advance and think about the journal’s beginning and ending – a very fitting metaphor for how counselling studies work and how I approach the work with each client too.

I used to struggle with endings but after 2018-2019 series of losses and changes I am at peace with the entire cycle. Because as someone wise said to me life is all about cycles: starting, moving forward, closing, moving on and sometimes even reopening them again. And that’s OK. Change is in our nature, it feeds growth.

Empty Hillfields Park today – great for getting back to running. I was hard and angry with myself for stopping – life got in the way so I had to take it easy – but today realised that only last week I did it run at all. Before that I did run every week and now I am only I tot he third month of running. Funny how things seem like larger issues until we measure them and put them into context and perspective. Getting ready for colder mornings but for now enjoying later run in the sun.

First yellow leaves on my running trail today – I cannot wait for autumn but really want to skip winter!

Woke up before 6 am from a nightmare. Having watched the Radioactive about Marie Sklodowska-Curie (fantastically directed by the amazing Marjane Satrapi) my brain really dived into the situation of women. The actor playing Pierre told an interviewer: “I don’t think Pierre was a modern man, he was an exceptional man.” I agree. Modern man still needs to look hard at himself and the history he carries on and correct himself – work really hard, actively shedding layers of gender imbalance. While an exceptional man does not need any of this explained – he walks the path with genuine awareness that women are equal and – just as men – miraculous creatures. I am only now realising how lucky I am to be raised by an exceptional man – and how much work is still to be done. Mostly by men, with a bit of help from women too. I am in pain, but hopeful because I have a framework model that’s works. I know how it feels to be equal and exceptional at once. We all can be, men and women and all other genders too.

There are small green spaces just between streets of Bristol that remind me of my childhood in the countryside. This is my way to the allotment.

Every time I visit Wales, I leave a small bit of my heart there and I hope to come back and maybe even settle down one day.

ARAF (slow) is the only word I know in Welsh, but one day I hope to learn this pretty language. For now, ARAF is my little mantra 😉

Sooner or later Mother Nature reclaims everything – we should remember that.

Late summer/early autumn always surprises me in the U.K., but 2020 is different in many ways. Autumn seems to be here, but maybe we’ll get another round of spring or summer before the end of the year?

Quietly hoping Mars looked like this and we will find traces of life on it next spring. In the meantime, this is Wales.