We chose to fly to Paris in January and did not regret it once. The weather was comfortable enough to spend every day walking around the city in wool coats, without overheating or freezing.

We returned to Canada, but I kept reliving Paris every time I told stories to friends and family. One of those friends noticed that I brought back a previously unnoticed glow. I thought, perhaps, as my husband noticed, it was because there I was ‘in my element’.

I am scared to look at myself one day and find out that I am a shadow, a copy of somebody else’s perception. Isn’t it fear we are all facing time after time? As much as it applies to an artist learning by copying from old masters, as much it should concern a young girl who selects a few fashion icons on Instagram and duplicates their looks religiously.

I might sound trivial, but the resemblance between life challenges and forest trails is striking. Unexpected downs, alarmingly steep ups, slippery slopes and branches, dry branches—danger for careless eyes, one cannot rest for a single moment. One had to manage balancing listening to birdsongs and staying on a narrow path, watching sunbeams through the dense canopy of pine and birch trees and considering the stability of rocks under a horse’s feet.