Faith, family, friends
and sometimes also an excellent doctor.

This is my moment to thank the persons I met and talked to today, either by coincidence or appointment, happy about the opportunity to share this moment.

I am being supported by close friends, family and doctors who all in their special way help and want me to get better soon and from time to time remind me that even a small step every day is a step forward.
I am being supported by all those who share their experience and spirituality here.
Sometimes I think angels are supporting me as well if I only lift my head and look around in wonder.

So we can be proud of ourselves and grateful.
The fact to be “still there” , learning, hoping, praying and sharing is wonderful. Though I don’t like the word resilience, as it was repeated and somehow en vogue when I had to spend several months in hospital about 10 years ago, I must have developed the quality . In my present struggle Iam not that bad and desperate as I was then because I remember getting better and finding help in a difficult situation.

Meditation, mass, sometimes Bach or a mantra,
an early morning impression of nature in the countryside,
a coincidence that seems to be a gift from heaven,
children’s laughter and eyes full of the joy of living,
the wisdom and grace of a friend ,
“old souls” I have met in meditation classes or listened to,
first flowers at the end of winter
the birth of a child.

To see that my children have become happy adults despite a difficult family time made me feel alive today. A walk along the coast of the Baltic Sea with the sun in my face, the fresh wind etc. is nature’s gift to make me feel most alive, longing to go there for a weekend soon,

Sometimes strangers touch me because of a smile, a warm voice or a gesture or an act of generosity, most often it is a smile.

That I can be patient and forgiving with almost anyone, but not with me and my process of recovery.

Sebastiao Salgado’s acceptance speech for the German
Peace Prize 2019 I just read moved me and the texts by
Ed and Journey are an inspiration to stop brooding. about my life/health.

I am grateful for my friends and my family, today esp. for my youngest aunt who has been like a loving sister to me since the day I was born.
I am grateful for peace and free access to food, water, a safe place to live etc. etc. I met refugees from Syria, Irak, Afghanistan and also taught some of their children. I am grateful that they are safe and pray for a lasting peace in those countries.

Brother David’s method of “stop,look, go”. It is not that I hadn’t read about it or heard him explain it in an interview, that it really worked for me was a surprise today and so welcome.

How do I know? When I don’t fall victim to ads and slogans, to the beliefs of the post WWII generation, to the idea of eternal economic growth, when I don’t compare, when I trust. There is so much change going on we don’t hear about in the daily news. I especially enjoy giving someone a small present on a day my mind tells me that I miss this or that.

Isn’t it wonderful how a smile caused by gratefulness can turn your day around?

Acceptance and courage.

Often in my life.
Today I was moved by the love and goodness in my nephew’s family. As I worked with children from broken homes or hardship of other sorts for many years it moved me deeply to see how wonderfully their parents care and how children play when they feel safe and sound (…and don’t have a smartphone yet;-).
Children do want to be good.

Giving up sounds like losing hope altogether for me, Mica. If it is supposed to mean “correct course” as Journey put it, I follow.

Samuel Beckett: ” No matter. Try again, fail again, fail better.”
I like this quotation and sometimes used it to comfort others,
even had a postcard from the Dublin Writers Museum with the text, forgot to
whom I sent it…just thinking I could tell it to myself these days, not only because I love the rhyme 😉

Guess they buy there because you do care, Javier. Have a nice evening.

Antoinette, so simple though not always easy and so true. Thank you for your words.