Celebrate Life

AA wrote: Så fint! :) Tack!

Celebrate Life

Life is a miracle and you should celebrate it all the time.

                                           Jostein Gaardner: The Orange Girl

From time to time, it is good to be reminded about what a miracle life is. Far too easily we slid into living carelessly, taking our existence on our beautiful Earth for granted.

Take five minutes every morning (while you’re enjoying your breakfast?) to thank the universe for your life and all the miracles in it. Give thanks for your healthy body, your wonderful family and friends, the job you have, and your cosy home - or whatever else that comes to mind. Think about how lucky you are to have all these miracles in your life, and how grateful you are for them. We all know that everything can change in a second, but when that second comes at least we have thoroughly appreciated what life has offered to us.

It’s a miracle that we are alive in the first place! It’s a miracle that we live and breathe on this magnificent green planet, rotating in a limitless universe. It’s a miracle that we can move about and enjoy its ever-changing beauty and share our experience with other beings. 

Celebrate life this week! Take a meditative walk and enjoy the autumn colours and the crisp air. Share a delicious cake from the local bakery with your colleagues just because you are such a good team. Surprise your partner or a close friend with flowers or chocolate to show how much you appreciate him or her.

Try to look at life and all its miracles with fresh eyes and celebrate the fact that you can see, feel, hear, taste, and touch - and that you have a mind that can decide to enjoy this one life to the fullest.

Rest When You Are Tired

AA said: Det är verkligen en passande text för mig just nu då jag håller på att göra mig av med mina ägodelar
BB said: Weise Worte! Es klingt so einfach und ist so schwer umzusetzen. Aber es ist gut, erinnert zu werden. Danke, Sabina.
CC said: What a nice and meaningful reminder 💚🙏🏻
DD said: Detta mail kom precis när jag behövde det! 

Rest When You Are Tired

Work when there is work to do. Rest when you are tired. One thing done in peace will most likely be better than ten things done in panic… I am not a hero if I deny rest; I am only tired.

                                    Susan McHenry

We often plan to fulfil a task at a given moment, without listening to our body if it says “enough”. Perhaps we want to thoroughly clean the house just before guests arrive, or quickly turn over the soil in the veggie garden on a Saturday morning before leaving with the family for the sea.

We decide to do something in a certain period of time and beware whoever or whatever comes in our way! In such moments we act like robots, and after the job is done it’s as if our batteries were taken out - we simply collapse.  

No, we’re not heroes because we work like maniacs. We’re just tired. Most likely we have not enjoyed our work and perhaps we can’t enjoy anything else that day: neither the visit of our friends, nor the outing to the coast.

Listen to your body. Do your work without stress, peacefully and in a “normal” rhythm. Do it as well as you can, with all your attention. Enjoy the work you have to do – and rest when your body tells you to.

Beholding Others

AA wrote: Das erinnert mich an Virginia Satir, deren Satz mich seinerzeit sehr berührt hat, auch wenn er eine etwas andere Perspektive einnimmt:

"Ich glaube daran, dass das größte Geschenk, das ich von jemandem empfangen kann, ist, gesehen, gehört, verstanden und berührt zu werden. Das größte Geschenk, das ich geben kann, ist, den anderen zu sehen, zu hören, zu verstehen und zu berühren. Wenn dies geschieht, entsteht Kontakt"

BB wrote: What a beautiful quotation!

Beholding Others

 Once for each thing. Just once; no more.
And we, too, just once. And never again.
But to have been this once, completely,
even if only once: to have been
at one with the earth,
seems beyond undoing.*

                        Rainer Maria Rilke 

Here I just copy Mark Nepo’s beautiful comment from his Book of Awakening: 

“Ever since my cancer experience, I enter every meeting with another being saying to myself, “If I only have this time on Earth with this person, if I may never see them again, what is it I want or need to ask, to now? What is it I want or need to say?”

I find I come upon others now as if I have just crossed a desert and each of them is an oasis. The truth is that each living spirit we encounter is a depth to gently swim in, a miracle that can quench our thirst. Honouring others in this way has opened me to wisdoms that would otherwise run silent beneath my time on Earth.”

*Ein Mal jedes, nur ein Mal. Ein Mal und nicht mehr
Und wir auch ein Mal. Nie wieder.
Aber dieses ein Mal gewesen zu sein,
wenn auch nur ein Mal:
irdisch gewesen zu sein,
scheint nicht widerrufbar.

The New and Unexpected

AA wrote: Love this 💚Especially now!

BB wrote: Detta är jag! Eller rättare sagt så som jag tycker om att vara. Under arbetslivet blev det inte riktigt så men NU! Idag tog vi en lång promenad efter frukost – och jag såg på världen som om den var ny. Underbart. Tack för dina visa ord!

CC wrote: Schön, ich denke oft, die beste Lösung in Beziehung ist, das Unerwartete zu tun. Das habe ich auch oft in der Kindererziehung angewandt. In der Körpersprache des anderen sieht man häufig, was der andere erwartet, und dann das Unerwartete zu tun, löst Spannungen auf. Wenn das gelingt, ist das ein Glücksgefühl. Es geht mit Veränderung einher, und das ist das, was Menschen am schwersten fällt, mich eingeschlossen. 

The New and Unexpected

You are the laboratory
and every day is an experiment.
Go and find what is new
and unexpected.
            Joel Elkes

Once again I am returning to our old friend, the “automatic pilot” ;-) Often, we put him on in the morning, and turn him off when we go to bed. By that we think we save trouble and time and in a certain way we might. But, alas, at the same time we cut us off from the magic and enchantment of seeing and living the moments of our lives with fresh eyes.

It is about being open or closed to Life. When you go out into your day with the feeling that it’s an experiment, with your eyes and soul open to the surprises it may bring, rest assured you WILL be surprised. Isn’t it just magic that you never know how your day will unfold? You never know the amazing people you will meet, the startling feelings you will feel or the beauty you will suddenly discover in a small detail next to your path.

Break a habit today! Instead of bringing your lunchbox, go to the canteen with your colleagues (or vice versa) - and go for a walk after your meal. Instead of mailing your question to a colleague, pick up the phone, or even better: go and see her. Instead of waiting for your partner to prepare dinner, surprise him or her by choosing something that appeals to you in the supermarket and create a surprise dinner.

Go out into your day and find (or create) what is new and unexpected. You won’t regret it!