The majestic Duomo and modern art in Milano.

It’s hard to ignore the Duomo in Milano, not that you want to, but even if your tried all roads, in this case, leads to the Duomo.

The first time I spotted it across the big piazza in front after having peaked my head up from the metro, it greeted me wrapped in a cold fog in the middle of January years ago.

It was love at first sight and it’s the kind of love I stay faithful to year after year.

I peruse it’s premises, enjoy getting a birds eye of the city underneath from it’s roof, and I spend peaceful time inside it’s embrace gazing at art, architecture and inhale it’s dusty incense.

The first thing I do when I visit Milano is paying it a visit and it never disappoints.

This last visit was no exception.

However I’m not going ot take you inside this time, I’ll let you enjoy it from a differet angle, from the museum of modern art.

My beautiful friend who lives in Milano introduced me to the modern museum that just opened it’s newly renovated doors opposite the majestic Duomo. And after having enjoyed perused the modern art scene it was time for a cup of hot chocolate and cake in it’s prime location cafe.

We, talked about life, about authenticity and about the surprise she had for me that evening!

I absolutely love surprises, I love the unexpected, and my heart was beating faster with anticipation as she advised me to dress semi formal for the event that evening, but lips were sealed.

Now, when we talked about authenticity and life we brushed up against the “reality” of our online presence.

And I promised myself I’d say a thing or two about it here while we enjoy the view of the Duomo.

In this remarkable online time, I feel it’s important to point out that although all I show you here in the blog is real, authentic and my actual life and creative journey, I hope you realize that there are many aspects to this life that does not show up on my online presence.

I think it can be easy to believe that someones online existence is the “true” picture of their “real” flesh and blood life.

I’ve heard some mention that they wish they had his or her life (online life), and I hope you are aware that even if I’m very happy and content with my life, that we all have battles to fight. That every life has stormy seasons that can be less that glorious sometimes.

That behind a sunny summer photo of a beach picnic there might be tears, and that the picnic was after days of rain.

I hope that we can inspire each other through our work and lives with this unique online presence, but that we always keep in mind that these lives are edited.

I don’t show you the days where shaving my legs was my most productive and only act of “labour” that day, and although it may appear in a post it might be summed up in a sentence where a metaphor about rain or storm is used because these are private and somewhat raw moments that I reserve from the public.

I often get emails, comments and during interviews asking how I can travel so much.

I’ve been very fortunate to be able to enjoy the company of dear friends on the road, visit their homes, travel abroad as that is a dear passion of mine, and since I  have lived in various parts of the world many of these beautiful destinations have been in my backyard.

Through studies abroad, work and leisure, I’ve traveled much to please my bohemian and adventurous spirit.

I hope we can continue to share and be inspired by each other, but that we always keep in mind that we are all humans and that our days are filled with seasons and climate change even if the sun may be shining on the blog;)

And that the end of the day, no matter how inspired we are by others, I hope we find that it is our own backyard that makes us feel the most content, that we are happy with who we are and where we are.

Life is truly a creative journey and if we find that we are not content let’s seize this new year to leap a bit, to take a step in the direction of our dreams, because as Oscar Wilde quite strongly put it:

“Those who live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination.”

I hope we can all feel that we have something to contribute with in this world, and that we seize with talking down at ourselves comparing ourselves with others. Let’s be inspired, motivated and learn form each other, but I hope we can all feel in our hearts that there is a place for us, for our voice.

And if we cannot find that place, let’s create one!

No matter where we are or what we’ve done, there’s always a tomorrow that has not yet been written and that tomorrow is our blank page of possibilities;)