It’s been quiet over here… a little too quiet sometimes. Silence can mean different things to different people:

• in Finland, silence is almost sacred.
• in Canada, we tend to say that silence is golden, but we run from its intimacy when it does grace us.
• online, it can mean anything, but mostly it’s interpreted as abandon. A silence blog or website is an abandoned and neglected one.

If I can choose, I’d interpret the silence on these pages as of late as the almost sacred Finnish kind of silence. We need silence to clear space, shed the old and make way for the new. I’ve been using this silence to tune in and really notice, without the external noise. And if you know me personally, you probably also know that I’m usually the one making all that external noise 😛

You know the silence of spring that comes right before nature seems to explode and reveal all that it’s been silently working towards? This is how I like to think of as the almost sacred Finnish silence. And while it may come at an odd time (autumn), there are seeds and the potential for seedlings all around us.

So while I’m not yet ready to reveal what’s happening below the surface, I wanted you to know what the silence meant. And that even though you haven’t heard from me in awhile, I am thinking of you. Every single day.

You can find me where the tiniest of seedlings have started sprouting: www.instagram.com/irinapravet. I put a lot of love and thought into every post, especially since I’ve been so social media shy over the last few years. This is now one of many things shifting.

I am grateful for your patience and for sticking with me. I promise it’ll be well-worth the wait.

xx, Irina