Where to go next?
Now that my to-do list is getting shorter, and my calendar for the coming weeks is nearly empty, the daydreaming is taking a more serious turn. About everything I’m going to do once I have no calls, meetings, or deadlines for a while. If I’m honest, they’re not very exotic dreams; no backpack or vaccination passport required.
“Because I travel so much for work already,” I always say apologetically to anyone who asks what my summer plans are.
The honest answer is: what I love most is waking up without an alarm — preferably in my own bed — heading outside early with my husband and dog, taking a (long) walk, with a good cup of coffee waiting at the end. That can be close to home, with Parquiet as our regular hangout, but a small mountain village in Piedmont, the Belgian coast, or Ommen works just as well.
The feeling of freedom is the same. Being outside makes all the difference. The space, the sounds of the promise of a new day, the morning mist, the absence of human bustle. That’s really what it’s about.
That’s how I recharge best: being outside and moving. They call it ‘forest bathing’ now, after the Japanese Shinrin-Yoku[1].
How a traditional Japanese way of unwinding became a trendy way to lure city types away from terraces full of flirting people, toward flirting with the essence instead: nature.
We used to just call it going for a walk. Getting out. Fresh air, a brisk pace, and pure enjoyment — I can still hear my mother saying it. Now that I’m older, I finally understand: outside is where I feel at home.
In the run-up to my holiday, I don’t read a Lonely Planet or online reviews about ‘places to go.’ Instead, I’m gripped from the very first page by a novel written from the perspective of a beech tree — The Sighing of Trees by Roanne van Voorst (an incredible storyteller, and I should know — she once spoke at a Better Future event). From one single place, at the edge of a forest.
Nature is given the voice it deserves in this novel, and as I read, I make a dynamic journey through a changing world. That tree never takes a single step, and yet it travels further than anyone.
Travel can be grand, or it can be that one place where you stay — but where you’re truly, fully present. It’s not about the distance. It’s about surrender.
I wish you a beautiful journey!
Annemarie de Jong
[1] relaxation by immersing yourself in the atmosphere of the forest
#Summer tips from the Better Future team
Annemarie’s Tip – ‘The Sighing of Trees ‘ by Roanne van Voorst (dutch only)
A young beech tree grows at the edge of a forest, right behind the house of a forester, his wife — a biologist — and their growing daughter. Patiently, the tree watches the family’s daily life and the world changing around it. But behind this human story runs a bigger one: the relationship between people and nature. The forest is under threat of being cut down, and the father will do everything he can to stop it.
The Sighing of Trees is a reminder that even as life’s cycles keep repeating, the essence of what we are endures. What lives does not disappear.
Thinking about a camping trip this summer, but not sure where to start? Kampeermeneer.nl is website packed with practical camping tips — from the best campsites and gear recommendations to advice on cooking outdoors, packing smart, and making the most of life under canvas. Whether you’re a seasoned camper or pitching your first tent, it’s a handy resource to have bookmarked before you head out.
Vincents Tip – ‘Whispers in the Woods’ documentary by Vincent Munier
How many ways can sunlight break through low-hanging mist? How many times can you watch clouds slowly envelop a forest? Endlessly, according to award-winning filmmaker Vincent Munier. This time he stays close to home, in the forests of the Vosges — the same forests where his father once taught him how to look, and above all, how to listen.
Now Munier’s own son is the same age he was back then. Three generations move through the woods together, the silence broken only by their whispers: rutting deer, comical young owls, and evenings by candlelight swapping stories about the last capercaillie, or a tall tale about a lynx. A journey of uncommon beauty into the heart of the wild forest.
Larissa’s Tip – ‘The Giving Tree’ by Shel Silverstein
How much can one tree give, before there’s nothing left to give? A boy and a tree grow up together — he climbs her branches, eats her apples, rests in her shade. As the years pass, he returns again and again, asking for more: money, a house, a boat. Each time, the tree gives a little more of herself away.
It’s a simple story, told in a few plain lines and sketches, but it lingers: about love, generosity, and what it costs to keep giving without asking anything in return. A quiet, bittersweet classic — for children, and just as much for the adults reading it to them.
Loeke’s Tip – Podcast ‘De Vogelspotcast’ (dutch only)
This podcast is your weekly reminder to look up from your screen and into the sky. Every episode, professional birder Arjan Dwarshuis takes his childhood friend Gisbert van Baalen—who knows absolutely nothing about birds—on a bird safari. The podcast is in Dutch, so if you don’t speak the language, take this as a friendly nudge from Loeke to go outside this summer and see what feathered friends live near you.
Daria’s Tip – ‘Cloud Spotting for Beginners’ book by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Lying in the grass, drifting off while watching the clouds go by — that’s one of my favourite ways to spend a summer afternoon. This book, by the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, is the perfect companion for it. Have you ever watched a cloud being born? From low-lying Stratus to high-flying Cirrus, roll clouds to banner clouds, this beautifully illustrated guide reveals the facts, secrets, and stories behind every major cloud type — their fancy Latin names, the parts of the sky they like to hang out in, and the way they play with sunlight. There’s even a detour to clouds on other planets, some of them made of acid.
