About

Dear Reader,

I don't know how it is that you have found your way to me.

Maybe it was a photo, edged in tiny inconsequential letters by the corner, "Photography By Magdalene Marx".

Maybe it was something you read, penned into the vast ether once upon a time by me.

Maybe it was the colossal Google algorithm that engineered our meeting here today.

However you arrived by this juncture, I am glad you are here.

I started out writing that ubiquitous "About Me" page. The origins of how A Bohemia Life came into existence for me. It drifted in the macrocosm of ones and zeroes for a time and still floats about for anyone interested in the nucleus of such things. But one day, I had a realisation.

You will know me better by the questions I ask of myself than by the answers I found. The tale is in the unfolding of the Odyssey rather than any eventual resting place.

It is for this purpose that this page exists instead of that biographical account of my how. To know me is to know...

My WHY

Here is your haven to return to, time and time again to fortify yourself and know that even before you have existed, you have been wanted and loved.

In the long form, A Bohemia Life are the soliloquies on my blog.

The conversations I missed out on. The insights I wished someone had shared with me. When they did, that I wished I had the humility and wisdom to receive it.

That chasing success is a man-made maze designed to enslave you because it doesn't hold in esteem the wisdom and strength that comes from failing.

That the fear of failure is a far scarier thing than failure itself.   Fear of failure means never ever starting on your pilgrimage. Whereas failure itself is nothing but an oddly shaped stepping stone still moving you closer towards your purpose.

For what is our purpose? Our calling? I know it is to bravely, wholeheartedly, play the heart song that only we can hear. To be our own conductor and orchestrate the music that strums our thoughts and actions. To be the kind of service to the world that only we can provide.

For the world needs our songs of hope, empathy and love to be added to the chorus that it may drown out the noises that oppresses, subjugates and diminishes all that is good of our humanity.

So Why A Bohemia Life?

It is the home in which a lifetime of my heart song symphonies as daughter, sister, mother and woman are written.

Yours,

Magdalene

 

E P I L O G U E 

T O  M Y  C H I L D R E N

 

Dear Jurant, Mieszko & Holly,

My Darlings. Before you came along into my universe, I did everything society told me I should. Get the A's. Get the degree. Get the job. Get the promotion. I followed the blueprint as written for the world and outwardly, I was a productive and successful human being. I thought I learned everything the world could teach me.

Then you came along and  that was when my real education began.

Jurant, my Sage. You taught me what it means to love unconditionally. When you arrived after my first miscarriage, you renewed my faith. Watching you silently observing the world, an ancient soul in a newborn body, you taught me that the only kind of love that exists is unconditional love. That we show up wholly, no matter the heartbreak, the rejection, or the fear. We just show up in the best way we know how. You taught me that when we do so in the face of fear, Courage shows up with us. You showed me that there are no mistakes but only wonderful opportunities to learn and evolve.

_ _ _ _ _

 Mieszko. Oh, the light in your heart. From the time you entered this atmosphere, your glow illuminated the world around you. No matter the number of broken bones, fractures, and concussions, you refused to let any setbacks dull the light in you. You refuse to let any NO you heard, rob you of your God given right to live your best life. You taught me that there are no hard questions. Only good conversations. Oh how many good conversations we have shared! You taught me that the power of "SHAMWOW" is seeing the magic in everything around us, even if no one else can recognise it. If we can see the extraordinary in the ordinary, the universe rises up to meet us.

_ _ _ _ _

 Holly, my baby girl. You came late into my life but your timing was perfect. I will have the shortest amount of time with you but you made up for the lost time, right from the get go. Your blazing warrior spirit set ablaze a path that I watch with awe and wonder. You taught me how to remain steadfast in our conviction. You taught me that all our voices matter, especially the marginalised, forgotten and misunderstood. You taught me to be fierce in our truth but fiercer in our love. You taught me that to be a woman is to be the mother to empathy and compassion. You taught me that vulnerability is not weakness but the most formidable strength to living a courageous life.

_ _ _ _ _

 On the off chance that any of you might read this one day, please forgive me for all my failures and inadequacies.

My hope is that the one area I was never inadequate, was my capacity to love you wholeheartedly.

Always yours,

Mommy

_ _ _ _ _

 

If you'll like to reach me or discuss a collaboration, write to me via the contact form on this site, or directly by email or phone.  I share more stories on my blog and portfolio, as well as recommendations on the books, podcasts, music etc. that have been so dear to me. You can also keep in touch with me via my newsletter where I send my long form essays. Tender stories to be indulged with a cup of tea on those long slow rainy days. (Click to SUBSCRIBE)

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