To Trust Life

I just read a wonderful little book: "Les promesses de l'âge" (À 75 ans, ma nouvelle liberté) written by Perla Servan-Schreiber (it hasn't yet been translated into any other language, to my knowledge).
A cute little book about getting older and being "old". Another blogger mentioned the book and I wanted to know more because it's always interesting to read about what other people think.

The book contains plenty of wisdom and meaningful ideas and thoughts. I loved it!

One chapter got my attention. "S'alléger des pourquoi", which basically means: "Alleviate yourself of the whys".
Perla writes that, the older she gets, the more she doesn't care about why she feels the way she feels. She says that it's more and more about how she feels, what she experiences and therefore the whys of her feelings become more and more unimportant.

I love this notion. Very much so.
What a relief not to always think about the whys of my feelings but to just accept them.

She continues with:
"J'ai appris à faire confiance à mes sensations, mon flair, mon intuition, ma dimension animale. Et à la vie."
(I learned to trust my feelings, my flair, my intuition, my "brute" dimension. And to trust life.)

To trust life.
To feel without necessarily understand the why (acceptance is implied).

I will try to make this my life's new motto :-)

March Wish

Usually, at the beginning of a new month I almost immediately know what my monthly wish is gonna be. A word / an expression pops up, I go looking for a picture and I share it with you.
This month though, and it's a first, NO words came up. NOTHING. Nada. Niente.
What I kept seeing though was this picture of the tree pose (yoga) that I saw on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago. And even though I now know that I'm not the visual learning type (remember this post?), my March wish is gonna be the exception that proves the rule; no words, just a picture.
Pictures have their own language and this one is strong.

Let us all be like a receiving station on the one hand and, on the other hand, let's remain anchored to the earth.
No storm can blow this tree away! That's for sure.
Happy March everybody. Namasté

Goodbye Winter?

February (at least where I live) seemed more like April (season-wise, I mean). Sunny days, warm temperatures, awakening nature. I even saw some people sunbathing (and I don't mean turning your head towards the sun. I mean sunbaths where you don't have many clothes on...) and I saw people taking baths in the lake (and I am not talking about the usual crazy person who thinks that swimming in the lake during winter time is good for your health). 

Crazy, said the ecological-minded Me. 

Wonderful, said the summer-loving Me.

Unreal, said the yesterday Me.

The Me who left home early in the morning to spring time … and not 2 hours later parked her car in this winter wonderland:

Crazy, don't you think? But then, 2019 feels rather crazy … and not only weather-wise.

PS: I had a wonderful day but, honestly? In the evening I was glad to drive back to my "spring is all around us" place I call home :-)

About This Blog

Should I continue writing posts for my blog?
I have been asking myself this question over the last couple of weeks.
Should I?
Or should I not?
Why do I even have a blog named after me?
Why do I do this?

Well, I've come to realize that this whole blog thing is about … keeping my thoughts in line.
Being a person who often reflects on many hows and whens and ifs of (my) life, my brain sometimes feels like a beehive. And, as in any normal beehive, my brain is everything but not calm and orderly.
Therefore, writing is an excellent way to help my thoughts NOT to get out of hand.
It's not so much about how many people read my words.
Nor is my aim to become famous or something.
Oh my. No thank you.

All I want is to bring some kind of order in my busy (and some days messy) mind. This platform is therefore ideal for me and my restless mind. And if by some chance, there are some readers somewhere out there who agree (or not) with me, who feel (or not) like me, who laugh (or not) about the same stuff as I do? Well, then I am even more blessed.

Some Thoughts About Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a big word. We give it, we receive it but what does it really mean?
What does "to forgive someone"/"to be forgiven" imply?
Does it mean: I hurt someone, I say "I am sorry" and live on?
Or: Someone does me harm, says "I'm sorry" and everything is fine?
What about the wounds in our souls and minds?
Cicatrized and forgotten? Or cicatrized and NOT forgotten?
What about the open wounds?

We all have offended, hurt or wounded someone. Consciously or not. We all have asked for forgiveness. It's part of life.
But when is "something" really forgiven? When are you really forgiven for what you did?
Is hearing "I'm sorry" enough? Are there situations that are "unforgivable"?
Is something forgiven when it no longer hurts? When it's forgotten?
What about the wounds that no longer hurt but are not forgotten?
Oh my. It's complicated.

I can't speak for everybody but I know my wounds.
Hearing "I'm sorry" helps.
Time certainly helps as well.
Understanding why a person did what he did/said what she said, too.
Accepting my soul's wounds as part of life also.
What about trust though?

I had to turn 50 to understand that to forgive someone doesn't automatically include trusting again.
What a big relief to realize that I could indeed forgive someone but that I could, at the same time, decide not to trust this person any longer. I may trust again in the future. Just not for the time being.

I don't know who Henry Cloud was but he certainly was a wise man :-)

Learning Types

On Friday, in class, we talked about the different kind of learning types (auditory, visual, motor, communicative) and our teacher suggested that we take a short quiz to determine what kind of type we were.
The results of my test were mixed, as it's the case with most people. One result though made me laugh. The line where I had to insert the answers related to the "visual" type … stayed empty.
Zero, nothing, nada, niente.
That made me think of my flute lessons and I had to restrain laughter.

A few month into my flute practice, my teacher tried to explain "the rhythm" of a song by telling me how "this part of the song is like a dot", continuing with "and then comes a part that is like a wave and the last part is more like a straight line".
I remember trying very hard to "see" what she was talking about but I couldn't. No dot nor wave nor straight line made me understand how to play what we were practicing. I trusted her judgement though and I kept trying … and trying … and trying. It was only after a couple of lessons that I admitted defeat. She tried a different approach that made me (finally!) understand.

Therefore, my Friday's quiz results made totally sense to me. Explaining music by visualizing dots, lines and waves felt like something out of space :-) Now I know why :-)

February Wish

We live in a time (at least it seems to me) where everything has to go or to be better, faster, bigger, greater. No period of apprenticeship is allowed. We need to be ready to take on the world right away.
And if we do not succeed immediately we either blame the others, our bosses, the world, society, the immigrants, our parents (you name it).
But we (usually) never think that, maybe, just maybe, we didn't give "it" enough time.

Well, yes, because, you know, we tend to forget that achiving something takes courage, perseverance and ... time.
Yes, time.
Rome wasn't built in a day kind of time :-)

I decided that February would be the perfect month to get more conscious about ... giving time time.
It takes patience and faith but the results are so totally rewarding :-)
It's worth giving it a try!

Going Back To School

I spent many moments, these last couple of years, thinking about how my life … kind of was missing something. Something I couldn't put a name on. I was happy with my life but … Aah, if it weren't for the frigging BUT. A but I couldn't for the life of me define more specifically. My loving and well-meaning friends often suggested that, maybe, I needed some radical change like a new job or apartment, maybe a new look, a new hairdo? It was kind of them to want to help but it wasn't that.
I was looking for something to add to my life (that I love). I knew that no new job, no new apartment and even less a new hairdo would make my inner "but" go away.
I kept repeating to my (wonderful) friends: I want something in addition to what I already have. Something that makes sense. Something that fits.
But what, they'd ask.
Well, I don't know yet, I used to reply. But I will know when "it" will present itself.

"It" presented itself last autumn. And it made sense. And it fit. It was a "why didn't I think of it earlier?" kind of moment.
[Proof that life is ready when it is and not a minute earlier]

I want to put my language skills to good use. I want to hold lessons/teach classes to adults. In order to do that I first have to go back to school. The course is called "Adult Educator" (Erwachsenenbildner in German) and I'll learn how to teach languages to adults.
Some of you may think: what??? That's it?? Nothing more spectacular?
Well, no, nothing more spectacular. because I'm not looking for a spectacular life. I want an authentic life. One in which I recognize myself.

Therefore, I'll keep my job, my apartment (and my hairdo hahaha) and will hold German, English, French and Italian lessons in addition. There are already a couple of ideas buzzing in my head but first I'll put my time and my energy in my weekly classes to get my diploma (course lasts until mid-July).
I feel energized and happy!
Folks, I am going back to school. Isn't that exciting??