Do you know Serena?
I want you to.
She is vivacious, energetic and gorgeous and she runs at a 100 m.ph. She is the girl you want to sit next to at dinner, the one you want to drink long cups of tea with and the one you want to cosy up with and chat all night long.
I first met Serena in Sydney, we had children of similar ages in the same school, but never knew each other well. What wasted time. It wasn’t until we moved away and re-connected through the blog that we became friends again. Serena puts a smile on my face with every email; her humour is not only superbly deprecating but also downright hilarious. She tells a magnificent tale with wit and vigour and has her thousands of Instagram followers in awe; we hang on her every word and long for her next adventure.
Serena is a woman after my own heart.
Serena Crawford, Cape Town, 2016
I am enthusiastic and I love life. My internal landscape is that of happy person. I am interested in so many things it’s exhausting. I’m a big girl, nearly 6 ‘ tall and I like being dramatic in my dress and style , though this has calmed down a lot as I’ve become older and calmer. Tell us about your day-to-day life? I’m leading this very peaceful life now as there is a wonderful lull after many years of building endless houses and moving countries and continents.. I’m loving the process I’m going through which is de-cluttering my life. I’ve been doing it for a year and I still have another year to go. This means literally my whole life is being sorted through and looked at…… including my computer , my address book, the things that I own…everything !! This is the long story of what I actually do every day in this new phase of my life. This is my winter life. I wake up every morning at 5 am and I post my Instagram photo I wrote the night before. I read and see I have made at least three grammatical errors. I correct it. I then meditate for half an hour and read some inspiring and positive and informative book. At the moment I am reading, ‘The Rhythm Of Life’ … Brilliant book. I then write a page of the book I’m working on. I eat breakfast in bed and do about 5 skype calls all over the world to my friends and family. I discuss design and business issues with my daughter who lives in London. We have just started a home wares business together and it is early days. She does all the hard work. I throw in years of experience and my design advice. The main theory is we have to want what we are creating desperately and passionately. (This is not an easy thing to fulfil.) If I’m good I do a walk /run on the treadmill for 45 minutes and do a bit of power plate. After that I do all my work and appointments for the day and my de-cluttering process. I do a lot of international conference calls every week for study groups I’m involved in, So I’m a lot on my computer. I go for a walk with my husband and dogs around the Groot Constantia vineyards most evenings. When we come home I light the fire, and we sit around it reading and chatting. I go to bed very early, where I read or research stuff on the internet. Sometimes we watch a documentary together or I watch a series on Netflix. Many nights we have friends around for dinner very casually. I’m an entertainer. In summer my life is completely different as it is filled with people and lots of entertaining and I go to the beach whenever I can. In London and when I travel, I spend my life doing cultural things like galleries, exhibitions, and everything I miss out in my African life. Are you the woman you imagined you would become? Yes and no. I have surprised myself completely by becoming deeply interested in a spiritual path. This totally unexpected way of life has given me great joy. I have become some of the things I really wanted to be but I have such a long way to go… and I’m going to have to get cracking!! I think having a happy family and wonderful marriage has been always something I hoped and imagined for myself and I’m so grateful it came true. This has been an incredible gift and made me a person I might not have become without it. I also have been lucky enough to be able express my creative energy with a very big canvas. This was a dream and it came true. Now I’ve got older and want a calmer life I’m going to have to express it in a smaller way, like writing and finishing the book I’ve started to write. I think my struggle has been with having a disciplined and weighed and measured life and this is still not something I have achieved yet but I work on it every day. What are the valuable life lessons you have all figured out? That I cannot do my life on my own, I need a greater universal wisdom. I need loving kind and supportive friends and family which I luckily have. That investing your time and love and effort into your children is the best thing you will ever do apart from doing the same for yourself. I have learned that failure and disappointment are part of the journey. That no life is a straight line. I am still learning patience but I understand this is a critically important quality in order to have a serene life. I have learned that nothing is worth having or doing or being if it affects my serenity and internal peace. I have learned that it is a choice to be light, positive, to be happy, have fun and to have a joyful attitude. I chose this everyday. . I may not always succeed but at least that is my intention. Being present is everything. What do you like most about yourself? What do you like the least? I like the fact I’m engaged in the world and other people. That I’m always amused and find life very funny. I’m innately interested in people and what is happening around me. I am an open book and an open spirit. I don’t like the fact that I’m extremely demanding. I try daily to keep this in check. I’m a slow learner!! What do you like most about getting older? What do you like the least? I love getting older as I’m kinder to myself…and to other people. I practice radical self-care after a crazy life of being an extreme person. I don’t worry so much. I don’t care so much about so many unimportant things. I now know life is a movie and the scenery will constantly change. I love what I have learned in my long life. …and it continues daily. I don’t like, Losing my eyesight and having to wear glasses. The unwanted roll around my waist that just popped on without asking permission. That I can do less and achieve less in a day. What’s your favourite way to dress? Do you have a signature style? I wear safari clothes and hat in the day time …that’s my look in the summer. In London, I wear black leather leggings , boots, and a Anne Fontaine white shirt with black jacket…and interesting jewellery. I also like Etro and I’m a Uniqlo girl…all my jeans come from there. I wear jeans everyday. (White black, khaki and blue) I hardly own a dress. Do you have a beauty secret to share? I think good white teeth are the biggest beauty secret and one you can always arrange if you are not blessed with. Cheek highlighter by Lauren Mercier A hat and sunblock. No tanning ever. What’s on the bucket list? Cuba, Antarctica, Footsteps of Shakelton and the cherry blossoms in Japan. If you could change one thing in the past, what would you do differently? I would have never sold our house in London or our property in Oxfordshire.!! Or wasted so much time. What age do you feel right now? 40 (tonight 78) Who would play you in a movie? Edina from Absolutely Fabulous Your hero? Steve Jobs /My husband . Follow Serena’s adventures on Instagram HERE
images, serena crawford
