November Wish

November being one of the darkest month of the year, my wish could have been for light in one's heart, for example. I decided instead to not wish for something but to be grateful for something.

FRIENDSHIP

I don't mention enough how important good friends are.
Good friends offer support and help you evolve and grow. And vice versa.

This November I want to be grateful for the many wonderful friends I have.
Some of them I've known almost all of my life, others I met just recently.
All of them are important and helped me become who I am today :-)

Winter Is Here

There are sure signs that indicate that winter has arrived. No, I don't mean the obvious ones like colder and shorter days, Christmas decorations in the shops, (almost) naked trees, etc.
No, I, for instance, get that winter is here when

a) my flute teacher is taking out the Christmas music sheets and when

b) the car windows are steaming up as soon as I enter a warm building (like a parking garage) (I hate it!!)

Winter is here, my dears, and Christmas is less than 2 months away.
Oh my.

Conscious Consumer

Consuming consciously is not an easy task.
Take, for instance, my wish to buy a bird feeder for my balcony. You'd think that it would be an easy thing, right? Go to the nearest shop and buy it. Well, my dears, I thought so too but I stood corrected!

On the one hand I want to be a conscious consumer.
On the other hand I want my balcony to look good.


I did some online research and found that the bird feeders I loved were made out of Polish or Chinese wood. Those I loved less were made out of local wood.

See? Not an easy task.
Aestethics vs. conscious consumer.

In the end my inner conscious consumer won.
I have nothing against Poland or China but I don't want my bird feeder to have traveled thousands of kilometers before arriving on my balcony. In addition, the product specification didn't mention if the wood was out of sustainable production or not.

Funny thing. I realized that my inner aestethic could be quite loud and persistent. It kept saying: why not? It's just one small bird feeder. The world is not gonna die because of one small bird feeder, right? And don't forget. It will look soooo good on your balcony.
But, you know, my inner conscious consumer had strong voice as well. It replied: big change comes from hundreds of tiny steps. They all matter because:

This applies not just to bird feeders :-)

Authenticity

How Is It Going So Far?

I wished for truthfulness in October ... well, that was a nice thought but my October had nothing to do with being truthful (well, one should always be truthful but you know what I mean). So far, it was ONLY about being patient. SIGH

It's a funny thing, now that I think of it.

Ever since I came back from Greece, I am running around trying to handle things ... but nothing seems to run smoothly...

First came the fridge issue: polar temperatues all of the sudden and a back and forth between me, my landlandy and the fridge company guy. Oh my. Let's just say that this week I will finally receive a new fridge (hopefully! ahahahah)

Then one of my roller blinds broke and a new back and forth began between me and the different shops (I found out that my blinds are not what they call normal size these days). Finally I found a friend who will sew curtain for me but she is on a trip in India and therefore ... you know ... the thing about patience.
I could go on and on and on. Even meeting friends is not running smoothly. One is busy, the other is sick, the third is whatever.
SIGH
Sometimes, there are times like this.
I try to take it easy but being patient, let's say, is not my forte!

Remembering Greece: Paros

As already mentioned in my previous posts, Paros was the island, out of the three I visited, that I liked less. That doesn't mean that I hated it. Nooooo, by far not. It's just that I loved the two others MUCH more.
I couldn't say exactly what it was that I didn't like as much as the other islands. Just a feeling of mine.

I am glad though that my inner voice suggested to invert my travel schedule. My first idea had been to travel to Paros first, then Sifnos, then Naxos.
As Paros finally turned out to be the one I loved less, I decided to take it even more easy as on the other islands. No car rental, no bus trips. Just a bit of sightseeing in Parikía the first day: the Archological Museum, the Ekatondapylianí ("the One Hundred Gated", meaning that the church has, apparently, 100 doors), a walk along the old town.

The rest of my time was spent at the beach. I haven't had a pure "beach holiday" in... has it been three years already? I don't remember. I just knew that it was time for some serious beach time :-)

this is "my" beach :-)

Strange Dreams?

Sometimes, I go to sleep feeling … normal. After a normal day, a normal evening I fall asleep … unsuspecting that I will wake up in a bad mood. I literally open my eyes and KNOW I have a bad mood. No apparent reason. Yesterday was good, the night was good, nothing scheduled for today that could spoil my mood.
Just one big bad mood.
Take last Thursday.
I opened my eyes and EVERYTHING felt bad that day.
Luckily, I am not only older these days but also wiser (or at least I like to think so) and I therefore knew that my one-day-bad-mood was just that: a bad mood that lasts one day.
I got through my day, kept my mouth shut as much as possible and simply brushed all my dark thoughts aside.
I knew that tomorrow was gonna be a new day and with it I would have my usual good mood back.
Just a day to forget.

I don't want to dwell too much on these days, also because they are, luckily, rather rare. Sometimes though I wonder if these bad-mood-days are due to strange dreams I dream during the night.
Could that be?
Could a bad dream (that I obviously don't remember in the morning) be the cause of my bad day?
I can't think of any other explanation ...