What 30 Years in the Real World Taught Me About Happiness

Growing older teaches us many things, but sometimes it also asks us to remember what we once knew so naturally - how to play, how to wonder, how to stay open to the world around us. There is a quiet kind of wisdom in innocence, and perhaps we spend much of our lives trying to find our way back to it.

Maybe growing young again is not about turning back time, but about softening into life as it is. Letting go of what we were told we had to become, and returning to the quieter truths that were there all along. The ones that remind us to question, to feel, to stay curious, and to keep our hearts alive.

Love, loss, friendship, nature, memory - they all shape us. They leave their marks, their ache, and their beauty. And maybe, in the end, a life well lived is not about holding on tightly, but learning how to love what is here, while we have it, and to gently let it go when the time comes.

Featuring Harry Owen (Website - https://harryowen.co.za).
Filmed in Stellenbosch, South Africa

The poems read in this film are Harry’s own: Making It, He Ain’t Heavy, and Fall.
The closing lines are taken from Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem In Blackwater Woods.

Who is Reflections of Life? We are Justine and Michael (previously known as Green Renaissance). We use our passion for filmmaking and our love of storytelling, to remind our audience of one simple truth – that we are all human. The more that we understand and believe in this interconnectedness, the more we will treat ourselves, one another, and planet earth with a greater sense of compassion.

Filming - by Michael Raimondo
Editing - by Justine du Toit
Sound mix - by Tamryn Breakey-Volschenk
Colour grade - by Daniel de Villiers

The following music tracks are used in this film:
Attic Romance - by Jonatan Mollberg (via Epidemic Sound)
A Dream Lost - by Bonn Fields (via Epidemic Sound)
Small Steps - by Jonatan Mollberg (via Epidemic Sound)
Point. Period - by Jonatan Mollberg (via Epidemic Sound)
Journey - by Oliver J Hughes (via Audiio)
Ordinary Days - by Francesco Siano (via Audiio)

A huge thank you to these guys, who gave so generously of their to time to help with translations, enabling us to provide subtitles in the following languages:
Arabic - by Mohammad Al‑Therwi
Croatian - by Davor Bobanac
Dutch - by Karla Greven
English - by Justine du Toit
French - by Amélie Macoin
German - by Sibylle Steinpass
Greek - by Vicky Polychroni
Italian - by Grazia Gironella
Japanese - by Junko Ogasawara
Korean - by Hotae Devin Noh
Persian - by Zahra Estaji
Polish - by Anna Konieczna
Portuguese - by Sibylle Steinpass and Lucivani Valvassori
Slovenian - by Tadej Pasar
Spanish - by Paty Aguirre
Turkish - by Seda Duran
Vietnamese - by Anhie Pham