August…

August is by choice of the majority of the Portuguese the month of vacations. This year for us is the month of the beginning of work and school routines. In Denmark August is comparable to the month of September in Portugal and so we took vacations in July.

However, in many moments I feel the need to take long breaks at work. I call this time, the Time of the Butterfly. I go to the cocoon and only left when the time comes to spread the wings again. And let me tell you that if we want changes in life to fly higher, we need to have this butterfly time once in a while. Even if it’s for two or three days!

I chose to work with and for people and if on the one hand gives me the greatest of pleasures, it also requires me time and moments to reestablish my balance, because the wear and tear is huge. I work for love and inspiration. I do not really feel the need for vacations and I do not long for the arrival of the weekends. But when the wear arrives I respect it as an integrated part in my professional activity.

This August was like this. Already had appointments, courses scheduled, written reviews to deliver and … once again … I ensured the minimum services and put myself on the agenda for the days that are needed. I never know how long I’ll need it, but I know that respecting this time I will give the best of me on return. And the people who turn to me will only have this better.

My days, despite the routines that almost all people have, are never the same. I have days when I wake up at 6:30 in the morning, as in others I get to rest until a little later because I went to bed at 3:00 in the morning because I was writing.

Of course I have a family organization and help needed so that it’s possible and for this I feel fully blessed. Here at home we work as a team. We all do a little bit of everything and we all know that each one needs to feel himself to be able to be happy.

This is the example we would like to pass on to our children.

I am 36 years old, have two small children and a common family structure. Accounts payable, unfulfilled routines, people who depend on us. I’ve always fought hard for everything I’ve achieved. The smile that I usually have on my face is the result of a natural optimism that has characterized me since I was a girl, but that does not prevent me from having challenges to overcome throughout life. Like everyone!

But now … after years of working at least 12 hours a day and always doing several activities at the same time (let me say that I have always been able to work and reconcile activities that have given me immense pleasure), and thousands of kilometers from my homeland and from my family, I was able to achieve one more of my girl dreams: working from home, taking time for my children and my family.

–  But the truth is that I didn’t achieve this dream just because I tried hard. That would not be enough. Also because there is always someone who works harder and longer in life. The key ingredient was to have risked and believed in the dream. –

Yesterday was a day like this. Although I was on vacation, after all my daily activities, I felt the need to stay at writing at night and it was already two in the morning when I lay down, even though I knew that at 6.30 I would have to get up to prepare my eldest son for the school. I took him to school and took the time to go for a walk, to get some bread and then to have breakfast in time to wake my youngest daughter to go for a walk with her. And believe me that despite the fatigue that made itself felt at the end of the morning, I did not change these routines for nothing.

Yes, everything has its advantages and disadvantages … But I am not of rigid routines and I learned to be flexible and to respect my “flows” of inspiration and creativity. In this change that I have now embraced, I contribute a lot of my professional tranquility to continue to feel that these thousands of kilometers that separate me from Portugal did not cause my dear clients to separate from me. And here or nowhere else I will continue to accompany them.

Now I am facing a new and great challenge, for which I am preparing myself in the necessary time (which will be a good few months at least): to gain the confidence of the Danes in my work and for this I need to be more fluent in English and to start the My three years of learning Danish.

Can I?

Some say I’m brave … I don’t know if I am. Many people do the same as me. But if it’s the courage that we need to follow our dreams, then yes: I am very brave!

Marta Pica Rodrigues

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