Her86m2
“Although I grew up in Hanoi, our family has always had a special connection with Germany. My mom used to work in Germany and we still have a few relatives living here, so there is this enduring connection with this part of Europe.”
“My mom was self-employed and my father worked for the Vietnamese Government as an engineer, and so I grew up in a family of inquiring minds. Although, I wouldn’t necessarily say there was a great interest in art or creativity. That was to become my path much later in my life.”
“After I left school, I decided to study economics and the great thing about Germany is they allow foreign students to study for free. And for those reasons I really felt that Germany had something very special to offer me. The one thing I do miss more than anything else, is my mother’s tender love and her food. Sadly, you can’t squeeze either of those things into a suitcase when you decide to leave your homeland for another. So I am forever craving Vietnamese comfort food, wherever we go these days!”
“It was while I was studying in Germany, that I met my partner Tu and fell in love. Germany speaks to both of us in a way no other country does, and so it’s ultimately become our forever home. Fortunately, my parents have always been open-minded and supportive of what ever choices I have made from my life. And so we have been free to start a new life in Europe that has turned out to be full of new opportunities.”
“Tu is an amazing photographer and videographer. And so once we met, a whole new world of visual creativity became open to me. I have always been an outdoors girl so travelling abroad to new and interesting places enriches my soul.”
“To unpathed waters, undreamed shores... For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
“And from our new home-base in Germany, we have been able to travel to more than 30 countries, including Kenya, Morocco, Argentina, Myanmar, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Iceland, Italy, Spain, France, Macedonia, Thailand… Travelling is all about new people and new experiences. And with Tu as my partner, we have been capturing people’s stories in so many ways. Through his photography, but mostly through our making a human connection with different people from different cultures.”
“As Paul Bowles wrote, ‘I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.’”
“So, we‘ve made the world our own and through our progression in life we have tried to share and reflect upon all of those wondrous moments that come our way. Even if it was just a full moon rise, or a cloudy day. When you look to the world for comfort, these moments seem limitless.”
“We have witnessed together the majesty of the most special places on earth, such as the Fareo Islands and the unspoilt beaches of Iceland. And although these travels all come to an end, the spells of euphoria and the magic such places have over you, continue to influence our thoughts and life. Through our travels, we meet ourselves. Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”
“It was during a foggy day in the winter of Germany, that I began to store the endless stream of memories of my life in words and images. These were moments of profound reflection for me. Moments of tremendous meaning that were to shape the life of our family going forward.”
“Our first home in Germany was a rental apartment with a tiny 8sqm balcony which is usually empty and scorching hot when summer comes. And at the beginning of 2020, as the world started to shut down around us with the Covid pandemic, I thought of creating my own happiness from the 8sqms of space the world had given us. The initial idea, was to have a ‘green haven on my family’s doorstep’ or window as the case was here!”
“I had no idea at the time, the bountiful riches in food and life that were to follow from the just having a micro garden. After a few months, I realized that to nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul as well. I then discovered that it also became part of my personal identity, as the people I knew asked ‘How’s your garden going at the moment?’.
“My passion for gardening actually comes from a bigger change in my life, and that was the birth of my daughter Alexia. And so as we stop traveling for me to be a full-time stay at home mom. So often, it all starts with very small things. I started decorating the apartment while Alexia took a nap or when she was in a good mood. Making a home, DIYing and learning new skills was a great way to fight depression and my anxiety disorder that grew from those frightening days from 2019.”
“And so, I started sharing my thoughts and how I do things on my Facebook. I started getting beautiful messages from strangers, that the little things I did, inspire them. Then families, friends ... everyone started to encourage me to make some videos. But it took me a long time to officially go down that road.”
“As I said earlier, one day, deep in the foggy season of winter in Germany, I wanted to start recording the endless stream of collected moments of our family. In words and in images. That’s how I embarked on my Youtube channel journey (Her86m2).” “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I could make a living by showing a very small part of our life on Youtube. My subscribers are helping me make a living doing what I love. I don’t know how this journey will be, but there is one thing I know for sure: No matter what I do, I will do more, go more and love more.”
“I adore this particular quote by Sylvia Plath so much, because it reflects the true meaning of life. ‘Life has been some combination of fairy-tale coincidence and joie de vivre and shocks of beauty together with some hurtful self-questioning.’”
“And so my main quest in life is to be a good mother. Being a mother is a beautiful, challenging and unique experience. But it’s not easy. What do we want our child to be in this mad, mad world? What I have always wanted for Alexia is that she has a love and desire for life, and live it to the fullest. But most importantly, I hope she becomes happy and healthy in her own way, on her own terms.”
“The sun illuminates only the eye of man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“But to be a good mother, we need to forgive ourselves first for being stressed by that things that come from simply living and being a parent in these uncertain times. Although it’s a natural reaction, stress is still a negative force that can have a serious impact on our lives. We may not get rid of it altogether, but we can learn to move through it rather than allowing it to stop us from living our life.”
“For me, whenever I’m stressed out, I often find myself doing something creative that I enjoy: cooking, baking, journaling, DIY, taking photos, planning ideas, learning new music instruments, knitting…. I become immersed in my own creativity.”
“And then there is the managing of the things you can, and forgiving yourself for the things you can’t manage. Cleaning the house actually frees me from thinking and helps clear my mind. And somehow the repetitive motion of it, is for me, some sort of meditation. It is the art of cultivating the mind, not just removing dirt.”
“A buddhist monk named Matsumoto explained that ultimately the goal of cleaning was cleaning. Nothing more. ‘There is no end to cleaning,’ he said. ‘You sweep away a leaf and another one falls to take its place. That’s just fine. There is no difference between the process and the goal’.”
“So all of the usual stresses of life, overlayed with global anxiety of Covid 19, helped me to find my own world of happiness just by being kind to myself. I then took everything I was feeling and made positive actions for those emotions by doing the simplest things in life, and then sharing them on YouTube. Because Tu has been a wedding photographer/videographer for quite a while, and he always has to travel a lot to shoot weddings - we would do things together as much as possible, working on his career.”
“Before Covid 19 we had very rarely made videos about our lives, let alone document our daily events. And then during the pandemic, I realized that life could be short and cruel. And it’s so important to record the special moments as living memories for the future. And so, Tu had this idea of starting a YouTube channel.”
“Although it all started with my vegetable garden on my 8sqm balcony, writing about gardening, life as a mother, and my travels with Tu. Life changed again when we moved into a 152 year old tradition German farmhouse, which soon became our very own ‘Bauernhof’, meaning our place of agriculture.”
“Our home is located in a small northern village surrounded by nature and agriculture. It was built in 1869, but the inside was completely renovated in 2018. Wars and empires have come and gone, but our farmhouse has withstood all.”
“We love living in a house with so much history. You feel that history is alive all around you telling a story. The wooden beams seem to have a capacity to absorb the events they have witnessed during their lifetimes, and to release a comfortable feeling in the air.”
“Moving to this house gives me fresh eyes to think about my life. I have time to evaluate and find out who I actually am as a human being. There are no old routines and no set rules. I have the opportunity to turn the page and start writing the story from the beginning.”
“Here you can chart the passage of the seasons as you watch the smallest details change – the way the soft morning light highlights the dew on the grass, or the way tiny berries turn from green to red overnight. Sunsets and sunrises are huge and beautiful, unobscured by buildings, and sometimes on a clear night the stars are incredible.”
“And so a simple life of walking gently on the lands of the people who lived here before us - has given us a new place to call home, A place to appreciate life and time to remember all of the experiences that make us who we are. Our YouTube channel has become the most wonderful place to share and savour all of our experiences together.”