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.

14th December

inauguration of my personal skiing season! :) it was great fun, nice snow, nice company, and will be nice muscle pain by tomorrow morning. again there were many nice thoughts in my head, but now i'm too tired to put them down... maybe some other day :)

13th December

It sounds so trivial, but it is so difficult to get it right: to put the appropriate tone in what you say. If you think of it, this is not so surprising - in the end one is trying to firstly squeeze some thoughts or feelings into concrete language, which already can cause so many misunderstandings. secondly, very often one has a more or less conscious opinion about the person one is talking to and conveys a lot of this in one's manner of addressing them. this might not even be wanted, but bears the potential to seriously (and miraculously) upset the other one. So if some totally unexpected behaviour happens in communication, it could be a good indicator for taking a closer look on the issue.

12th December

At the beginning of this advent calendar someone asked me to put some pictures of christmas-romantic munich, and finally this town has done me the favour of putting on some nice white fluffy coat. it is really nice, especially further out of the centre, where the snow makes everything so silent, peaceful, and pretty.

I even found a new friend which you can see on top of the page :) And I found a hilarious idea for a gift, if someone desperately feels like giving one to me..

11th December

Snow.. :) It was just lovely to see the flakes swirl through the air shining under the light of the street lamps. Simply beautiful... and so playful! it makes me happy each time I have the privilege to see it.
The sensation of snowflakes melting on my face and sticking to my eyelashes and brows was so refreshing and when I came home seeing my icicled red face in the mirrow gave me a really good laugh and mood.
Can't wait to jump in the snow again! Fingers crossed, the skis are ready, maybe this weekend...

10th December

"I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought, nor what I liked"

[CS. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters]

9th December

just as i looked into my mailbox, i saw that there are 2222 emails in it.. probably most of them are not important at all, most of them came to me on some random mailinglist and not from someone in particular who wanted to tell something just to me.

somehow there seems to be a correspondence to oral communication. people so often keep saying things, which might even be entertaining, but not addressed to anyone in particular and not really conveying something substantiable. i am conscious of doing this myself, sometimes just for socialising and (at least trying) to make people feel at ease. but also to avoid to have to discuss something serious and unpleasant. it's even possible to observe people being conscious of such issue but continuously avoiding clearing it up until they kinda can not help it anymore. but then, i guess, it's human.. because addressing these things takes quite some courage, as one - at least for some time - has to put down one's disguise and take a stance on who one really is. in some ways it is quite a risk, but also i think there's a big likelyhood of a bigger gain in the sense of that an addressed problem can never grow into such monster as an ignored one..

and also another thing. truth and honesty might be unpleasant at times. but (maybe especially then) they are a sign of appreciation for one another.

8th December

Too tired to write much... but fascinated by mirrow occurrences in life, like a role swap in theater.

7th December

What is advent? It's the time for reconsidering one's route and position.. and then to readjust and try again, if things are not the way they ought to be.
Sounds simple and straightforward.. but already in small things in life it turns out to be quite challenging.. so I guess this means: re-try until you get it right!

6th December

Day of St Nicholas If you know someone called Nicholas or sth similar you can congratulate them to their nameday today ;)

Or maybe you are searching for another way of showing some appreciation to people around you? You could try sending real paper christmas cards to them... I find it so nice each year you find a card from a friend far away, of whom you haven't heard in a while and you realise they still didn't forget about you. To me this is quality contact, so much better than all this facebooking, just because it is so real.

The only thing about this game is to not write just to get a letter back (but I guess this is valid for all kind of gifts you give). But then, if you think of it, it's not a big problem when you write just because you feel like it :)