Last month I went to Bihor and Cluj counties to conduct some field visits for work. I’ve been lucky enough to meet people committed to investing their energy into increasing the chances of those around them, especially children, to find success in life. It’s quite inspiring to see people at action. I admire the day to day input which leads to progress over time. Every single time, after going on the field, I analyse my life decisions and wonder when will I make the time to volunteer or when will I start working in project implementation with actual beneficiaries. I understand now that this is the direct effect of being inspired to try to make a positive difference into somebody else’s life.
Anyhow, field visits are quite disrupting in my life as I basically completely change my environment. When at home, we have a system to manage cooking, cleaning, working, doing sports, going out, staying in nature and all the other things I try to turn into (healthy) habits. When on the field, there’s a lot of driving, thus sitting in the car, lots of interacting with new people, sleeping in hotels, eating out; I basically get more tired from all the attention I need to pay in this new context. I usually try to travel easy, so I take with me all those things I consider to be essential. For instance, I pack clothes for exercising indoors, but no running shoes. Therefore, it usually ends up with me being more static than I am in Bucharest and making way less healthy decisions.
In this last visit, because of my overall well-being, I’ve decided to keep my activity low. The most strenuous activity I did was walking in the city center of Oradea. Not only have I found a great bistro with great cappuccino, but I also went to the book store and bought some books.
As always, when buying books, I bought a present (another book) so that my boyfriend would not be upset that I, once again, broke the promise and brought home more books. His not against books, not at all, he actually has many more than I do; it’s just that when we move, we need to carry way too many books from one place to another. So we made a pact, at my proposal: when something new comes in, something else goes out. My friends should expect to receive books as presents in the near future.
And because I was talking about inspiring people, I’ve bought a book about Winston Churchill. I like history because I believe it helps explain why life now is as it is. But this book is mostly a consequence of the fact that I started (and finished) watching The Crown. I could not recommend this series more. To me it felt so full of insight and presents in a pretty detailed manner the happenings within the UK Royal family in in the second part of the XXth century. But there is not enough Churchill in it, so I felt the needed to learn some more. So I basically spent the remaining time reading in bed.
The book is not long (p. 190, Romanian version) and it presents in a rather broad perspective Churchill’s contribution to our world. The lesson I took out of the book is that he made history because he struggled despite adversity to remain relevant. He cared enough in order to find ways to make a contribution. He went on the front and he wrote about his war experiences. He made mistakes and he paid for them with exclusion. However, he has found ways, despite hardship and critics, to stay connected and return in politics. He used words, spoken and written, in order to convince and influence politicians to make decisions as he associated ideologies with concrete realities. It’s this struggle to make your contribution that made me reflect. It’s not that one makes a contribution and then he/she is forever praised; no, to do the right thing means to try hard to take action, to struggle to implement your ideas, to continue to work, talk and write in order to influence the making of the needed changes with consciousness and dedication and then let history decide if one has done the right thing. And the second thing I loved was his interest in arts: he painted, he wrote and he still had sufficient time for politics. For sure, I must read this book again. Reading it has only increased my interest in reading and learning more. Thankfully, my next reads are at the library.
I also read my boyfriend’s present and started to read Game of Thrones. It seems there is so much more time for reading when away; although, I have enough life experience so far in order to know this is hardly true :).
During the weekend we went at the wedding and I had a crazy good time. I didn’t expect to have so much fun, giving that the only person I knew there was my date. But still, people were nice and we danced a lot, so it felt great. We took the opportunity to visit Vaslui, which impressed us with being so green. Loved their Copou Park.
I am now looking forward to what June of 2019 has to bring. Hope that you, children, had an amazing 1st of June. I know I had mine!