All beautiful moments..

..will pass eventually. It's in their nature. So don't worry about where they came from or how long they will last, but feel them, live them fully as long as they are there. This way, instead of leaving a gap, they will add to your life.

Your mistakes are your friends

Yesterday in a completely crammed tram I witnessed an impressive interpretation of this phrase.

Next to me a woman was sitting, listening to some music (not exactly my style, but never mind ;). Opposite was another woman, which suddenly turned towards my neighbour, asking: "Sorry for disturbing, but where did you get this nice player? It's so cool and small, just to clip it to the jacket!" - The other one was a bit startled but told her this was the ipod shuffle and the shop where she got it from.

The woman took out some really colourful book and a calligraphy pen (with violet ink!), wrote down "ipod schaffel, saturn", looked a bit doubtful and showed it to the other one - "Like this?" When the other woman corrected her, I expected her to cross out her 'silly' writing, as i would have done. But instead she smiled to herself, chuckled, and drew a heart shape around it!

Sounds very trivial, but the moment was so impressive that the woman next to me and myself exchanged surprised glances. It's just not so common to deal with these kind of mistakes in that way, even though some wise people keep advising it very convincingly.

blow your mind

By now it is a well-known trick to break obsessive perfectionism: Do something out of your routine. Like taking the wrong bus, remain in your train one or two stops too long and see where it takes you to, take the other turn on your way home.. or the other staircase.

On my hitlist these days are: inviting a stranger for tea (to be precise, someone who thinks you are your own sister), going to perform music knowing only place and time but not people and pieces, playing scotland yard with the public transport, greeting someone with good wishes without needing anything from them, not even information. Probably most of these things sound rather trivial. Maybe they are, but one thing i've learned is that doing simple things you're not used to can be quite difficult.

The results of this study are quite varied, with one common element: the outcome was always interesting and positive, as well as relaxing. Like fresh air blowing through my head, taking away all the dullness and over-focussedness of everyday life. The best experience was being surprised by the world, even sometimes surprising myself (which usually proves even more difficult). And as surprises are, one remembers them and the special aspect of the world which made them happen.

Baseline of the whole thing: I warmly recommend you to try breaking your routines (that is, if you do have them). One thing to keep in mind though is to try this when you're alone - you can't coordinate so well when you don't know what you're going to do next!

15th December

Two interesting observations: it is scary how quickly anger and frustration can come back, even after a good achievment. and it is as astonishing how good it can do to then let things be and do something else. it is a real relief then to find that people also see other abilities in oneself and even choose to rely on them and one can give them a hand to do something amazing.