Photo Essay: Winter in the Lauterbrunnen Valley (Switzerland)

I am loving the snow, though ours probably won’t melt anytime soon.

Yep. She loves it (though she does get too cold and make me turn around on hikes sometimes).

Well, maybe not the most expensive country (I think Scandanavia is still a lot more expensive :)), but, yes, definitely more expensive than some of our neighbors!

That said, this valley is the one place in the world where I feel perfectly at home, the best version of myself.

In fact, that’s how I knew I wanted to move here: when I realized that I’d rather be on a very tight budget in Switzerland than wealthy in, say, Mexico. Money is fleeting; joy is what I’m after.

My therapist likes to remind me that our choices and actions are the real test of what we believe. And so the person who makes choices because they will make them wealthy shows us that they value money (or perhaps security in a rather insecure world). And the person who chooses to pursue art, quit their job, turn down the high-paying, but unfulfilling position, and move to a place where her dollar doesn’t go very far, she shows her values too.

That’s not a judgement on anyone’s values. Because security, well that’s a pretty nice thing to be after too, but for me it would be the wrong thing to chase.

Instead, my values (as demonstrated by my wildly unconventional choices) must be nature, wellness, bravery, art, stories, community, and love.

Thanks. It is!