20th December

Life can be so beautiful, once one jumps out of some routine which keeps one so busy that no clear thought comes to one's mind. But once that is gone, you look around and realise how beautiful this world is, how many good things there are, and feel full of love for this world and its inhabitants - Life itself then becomes such joy :)

The thing that makes me hopeful is that this beauty is so varied and everywhere, so one can find it wherever one is. It is 'just' the mindset needed for finding it - which might be a bit more difficult to keep during our selfmade stress of everyday routines; but I do believe it is possible.

19th December

As I'm currently kinda traveling I am afraid that this calendar will lack some entries.. however, i got something funny and geeky in the mail which is too funny to not share.. enjoy the spirit :)

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16th December

What a beautiful feeling if someone is showing appreciation towards one. Maybe it is not always an easy thing to do, and people often tend to say 'oh, he/she knows very well how much I appreciate them'.
However, I am not so sure of this, and there is nothing we loose when opening up our hearts and telling someone about the joy they are bringing into our lives just by being there. Maybe it takes some courage to overcome our pride, admitting that our life would be less beautiful without them, but what better gift can you give to a person than telling them that you are grateful to know them?

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.