Why I like churches.....

Here are some pics I took today in the local church :-)

Dots of light in the pillar

Red tiles

This is my personal favourite today! Like the colours very much!

The light in the wall is almost as bright as the glass in the window!

Little arch

Enjoy the rain

One day, several years ago, I went to the local snackbar in the evening to get some fries. It was raining rather heavily, like it does in the Netherlands... and I was quite wet and grumpy. I went into the snackbar and there was one guy waiting before me... I ordered my fries, and watched the owner give the food to the man before me... upon stepping out the door, the young man turned, smiled and said: "goodbye! enjoy the rain!"
These words struck me and made me smile... I still remember them, and often they help me to really enjoy the rain :-)

Rain isn't so bad at all, nature needs it, and I guess we need it too at times... When I am biking through the rain, and it takes long enough/it is heavy enough, there comes a moment when you stop minding it (usually this coincides with the moment you realise you are about totally soaked and can't possibly get more wet)... this is often a liberating feeling... Yes, you're totally wet, but hey, it's just rain, it will dry soon enough, and you don't die of getting wet.... It's somehow fun, racing though the rain, and the wetter you are, the nicer it is to get home and take off your wet stuff and change into dry stuff! Makes me feel very much alive altogether! and that is a great sensation, no matter where it comes from! :-) So.... enjoy the rain!

Trial and Error....

Can it be true that most plans fail because we don't even seriously try them?

I was thinking of this in the shower just now, when I had just hung the bathroom mirror on the wall....
I remembered my housemate complaining that it would be so much better if the mirror would be hanging on the wall, while it was, until now, standing on the shelf above the sink.... as, I assume, it has been for a long time before I moved in....
Now, I had a look at the wall and the mirror for about 2 minutes when brushing my teeth and I saw a screw sticking out the wall... turning over the mirror, I saw a hole (to put a screw or nail) for suspension.... I put the hole to the screw, tried if it was hanging securely and now it's hanging on the bathroom wall, safe and solid.... Not at all difficult... Now, this is not to boast that I am crafty, but merely to express my wonder at the fact that people often don't even seem to TRY ideas they have, or taking steps to achieve what they want.... this bathroom mirror is just a small and silly example, but if you take this line of thought, and copy-paste it to different (bigger, more important) areas of life, how many times do we get an idea, or a wish for something or some situation and do we not even get to trying how to get it/there because we kill the idea prematurely because we perceive it to be too difficult, too hard, too absurd, too scary, too different?  This is not even trial and error... we can learn from mistakes and errors made.... in my opinion, and this is perhaps just a personal wake-up call, (which does not mean I will always apply this knowledge from now on) the greatest error is not even trying....

I'm looking forward to your thoughts, if you wish to share them!

o_d

Of time, speed, efficiency and its gains and losses...

Rightnow I am reading a very interesting book: Tyranny of the Moment by prof. Thomas Hylland Eriksen. Here is a little part of the book I particularly like and would like to share with you.


Nothing personal with regard to Germans or Spaniards, but from a cultural perspective, it is interesting to me to consider the difference in "northern and "southern" cultures while I'm at it.... :-p

"The contagious nature of speed, and its intimate relationship to efficiency as a value in itself, is brought out clearly in a well-known story which exists in many versions. In the variant told by Heinrich Böll, a German tourist visits Spain and discovers, to his horror, a Spaniard dozing in the shade of a tree on the beach. The German approaches the man, a fisherman, and lectures him on the virtues of efficiency: 'If you had gone out fishing now in stead of wasting your time, he explains, you might have caught three times as much fish and bought yourself a better boat.' Eventually, he fantasises, the Spaniard might employ others and build a factory. He could become a rich man! 'What for?', asks the Spaniard. 'Well', says the German, 'you could have gone into early retirement, living off the profits and spend your days dozing on the beach.' 'That', says the Spaniard before turning over, 'is exactly what I'm doing.'

Something has run out of control. Time-saving technology has made time more scarce than ever. The wealth of available information has not made most of us more enlightened, but less enlightened." (Thomas Hylland Eriksen 2001, 77)

And I would like to add another quote and some of my own thoughts that relate to this:

"Speed is excellent where it belongs. But it is contagious, and it has possibly serious side-effects. Unless we understand how speed functions, what it adds and what it removes, we are deprived of the opportunity to retain slowness where necessary" (Thomas Hylland Eriksen 2001:59).

Now, I consider it among our tasks to 1) decide when speed and slowness are necessary and, 2) to consider what speed can add and remove from our lives and 3)take into account the consequences whenever we choose a fast or slow pace of life.

Pace of life

My dear girlfriend one day exclaimed: “you are the man who is ten times slower than anybody else” and that made me think...

I am slow, yes.... and the way she said it, she made it sound like a bad thing, but actually, I don't agree to that.... I have my own pace of life, and so does everybody else... Besides that, I realise, I really like my own pace of life, be it sometimes slower, sometimes faster than others... it depends highly on the thing you do anyway. 

Some people are fast, but make may mistakes, some people are fast and never learn to improve what they do.... It seems to me that in the current age, speed is valued too much, so much, that it pushes away other, perhaps more important values...

I, for example like to do things slowly, carefully and thoughfully, which ensures quality and peace of mind....

Daily OM has many thoughtful texts and one of them is about one's pace of life... I would like to share it with you, since it largely matches and informs my views:

---

September 13, 2010

At Your Own Pace

The Tortoise and the Hare

People take life at different speeds and one way is not necessarily superior to another.

The classic tale of the tortoise and the hare reminds us that different people take life at different speeds and that one way is not necessarily superior to another. In fact, in the story it is the slower animal that ends up arriving at the destination first. In the same way, some of us seem to move very quickly through the issues and obstacles we all face in our lives. Others need long periods of time to process their feelings and move into new states of awareness. For those of us who perceive ourselves as moving quickly, it can be painful and exasperating to deal with someone else’s slower pace. Yet, just like the tortoise and the hare, we all arrive at the same destination, together, eventually.

People who take their time with things are probably in the minority in most of the world today. We live in a time when speed and productivity are valued above almost anything else. Therefore, people who flow at a slower pace are out of sync with the world and are often pestered and prodded to go faster and do more. This can be not only frustrating but also counterproductive because the stress of being pushed to move faster than one is able to move actually slows progress. On the other hand, if a person’s style is honored and supported, they will find their way in their own time and, just like the tortoise, they might just beat the speedier, more easily distracted person to the finish line.

It’s important to remember that we are not actually in a race to get somewhere ahead of someone else, and it is difficult to judge by appearances whether one person has made more progress than another. Whether you count yourself among the fast movers or as one of the slower folks, we can all benefit from respecting the pace that those around us choose for themselves. This way, we can keep our eyes on our own journey, knowing that we will all end up together in the end.

Source: Daily OM

---

Now, it is a bit fuzzy and gets a bit down the track of woolly spiritual contemplations, which is not always my cup of tea, but there are things in it I like very much. 

I don't know if we end up at the same destination together/we end up together in the end, but to me, that is not the important point. The main point to me is that our attention is drawn towards the realisation that people live their lives at a different pace, and that we should respect one another's pace. To me it often seems that a certain pace, often together with a lifestyle, is forced upon me (or others) and I dislike that very much.

To me there is no correct pace but your own, and in relation to others, you will sometimes have to discuss the pace in which things are done together...

Another idea that is appealing to me is the idea that life is not a race.... it is when you choose to race, it is not when you don't...

If, as the author of this Daily OM states, we all should end up at the same destination, life indeed could be considered some kind of race, but to me, we all rather seem to go to our own destination, and the way to get there is a highly personal one, and trying to live life at another pace than your own, whether faster or slower, seems to me unhealthy...

I like the way reading this made me think about and appreciate my own pace of life, and I hope you will do so too :-)

o_d

I do wanna be me

When in 2003 Type O Negative delivered the album Life is Killing Me, I was almost immediately struck by the song "I don't wanna be me". I liked it beyond all the other songs on the album. Not because the direct lyrics, but because the train of thought it caused me.... the chorus tells us:

"I Don't Wanna be
I Don't Wanna be me
I Don't Wanna be me anymore"

(Type O Negative)

The the song is accompanied by a clip that is, in my opinion, brilliantly done. It shows a normal working class man, coming home from work, and changing into all kinds of costumes, impersonating all kinds of idols. Yet, throughout the song, he does not manage to be satisfied with any of his efforts to become someone he seems to want to be...
I find this a striking symptom certain of modern day societies, in my opinion, a rather apt observation by the men of Type O. People seem to have so many influences, that they have trouble choosing, and trouble deciding who they want to be.... besides that, people do not learn to realise and accept simply Being who they are, and working from there.... Hearing this song, and seeing this clip, the unhappiness and inability to accept himself, described in the man's life, inspired me to realise the opposite: I DO want to be me! Very much so! and I do want to change the things I do not like, and learn things I wish to know.

Please enjoy this clip and it's insights and reflect on it (please click the link below, since embedding did not work for this vid) :-)

o_d

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXIWRan3XGY

Good morning!

Often, I post "good morning" to facebook, and it has on many occasions turned into a nice thread with all kinds of happy wishes and/or interesting discussions... since I have decided to become more aware and more appreciative, posting "good morning" and watching the thread unfold, is a very nice mini-study :-)

The phrase/wish "good morning" has quite a lot of meaning for me, not only because I love mornings, and wish everyone's mornings to be good, but also because of reading (and reflecting on) the Little prince....


One of the most touching chapters of the Little prince, to me, is the chapter about meeting the fox, a chapter on social relations and responsibility which appeals very much to me, and it taught me a very valuable life lesson:

"One only understands the things that one tames" ... "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed"

To me this means that we only understand the things and people that we spend time with, get to know and get to connect with, in the ways they are able to connect... and once this is established, you have become in a way, responsible for it/him/her....

I think it is worth reproducing and sharing the chapter here, in order to reflect on the (in my opinion) most important ideas...

---

"It was then that the fox appeared.

"Good morning," said the fox.

"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.

"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."

Fox

"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."

"I am a fox," the fox said.

"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."

"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."

"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.

But, after some thought, he added:

"What does that mean--'tame'?"

"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"

"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean--'tame'?"

"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"

"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean--'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."

"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.

The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.

"On another planet?"

"Yes."

"Are there hunters on that planet?"

"No."

"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"

"No."

"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.

But he came back to his idea.

"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.

"Please--tame me!" he said.

"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."

"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."

"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."

The next day the little prince came back.

"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . ."

"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.

"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."


So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."


The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

And the roses were very much embarassed.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.


And he went back to meet the fox.

"Goodbye," he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."

"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

Source: The Little Prince, chapter 21

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One of the first things that strikes me about the Little prince (book and character) is the respect and care expressed by the prince. He meets various people and creatures and is interested and respectful toward all of them. He expresses appreciation for the unknown (you are pretty) and is keen to excuse himself if he feels he said something inappropriate, but is not afraid to ask when things are unclear... All features I would wish to adopt and develop very much myself :-)

The whole explanation of taming, as the fox gives it, is very beautiful and interesting to me... I agree that it is too often neglected in this world, to establish, and maintain ties... between people, between us and the other, between us and our surroundings, and perhaps, worst of all, between us and the whole idea of the rest of the world... I would be pleased if I could make it somewhat of a habit to cultivate the art of taming (and maintaining consciously :-)... even though missing what I myself have tamed causes pain, but like the fox said, it has done me good... Those I miss and love are there in my heart, and to meet with at times, the world over when we both can, and that is very dear to me, and that fills me with happiness and joy, although it also may fill me with sadness at times... to me it is at the core of being to tame and be responsible....

Thanks for taking the time to read and reflect! :-)


o_d

Birch Mouse

When I was a kid, we made a mouse out of wood at primary school. I did not like working with my hands back in the day, but now I am starting to like working with wood more and more, and decided to once again try and make a mouse. I went to look for a suitable piece of wood, my dad advised me to use Birch over Pine, because it is short-grained... I took his advice and here are the results:

Carefully selected branch of Birch wood

De-barking

Shaping....

More shaping....

Stages of sanding...

Nice ass!

 During the coarse sanding, I lost the pretty structure of the wood, but luckily, with very fine sandpaper, I managed to get it back! :-)

En profile

He's got eyes! :-)

Pretty boy! :-)

Colours of Summer

One day I was struck by the beautiful colours of summer, and decided to capture them :-)

Roses at the wall

Honeysuckle

 

Mallow

Foxglove

Walnut

Unknown pretty flower

Marguerite

Cherries

Summer's abundance

Lovely Lavender

Wicked!! :-)

just love closeups!

Grapevines at the woodshed

Time and Choice

A thing I often notice, is that people complain that they don't have the time to do things they want, should, or ought to do.... I have some thoughts on that matter I would like to share here....

Gandalf (yes, the wizard from Lord of the Rings) says some pretty true words about the time-choice dilemma:

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us" (Gandalf/ J.R.R. Tolkien)

And I am convinced this is true. One day, I was rushing to my work on my bike, racing through the center of dear old Amsterdam. My mind was rather occupied: I was thinking of the meeting and dinner I planned after work, with a real good friend. I realised that that would bring me great joy, but left me no time that day to study, while a deadline was waiting impatiently. I looked around, feeling troubled.... the phrase "I have no time" buzzing through my skull.... Suddenly, I realised that I had just as much time in every day as everybody else.... there's 24 hours in a day, no matter what you do.... So, basically, time itself could not be the problem.... then what was the problem? The fact that I had to work all day which brought in money, but prevented me from studying or meeting friends? The fact that I choose to meet up with friends after work, which brings me joy and life lessons I cannot figure out on my own? The fact that I studied, and that keeps me from working or meeting friends? None of these are any problem on their own... The problem was, I think, that I did not consciously choose the things I did that day... When I choose to do one thing, I must thereby accept that I cannot do another simultaneously.... Not making this choice consciously, seemed to be the problem to me. With a happy sigh of relief, I realised I had chosen to work and earn money that day, AND chosen to meet my friends. When I fully realised this, I did not mind at all that I would not have time to study anymore that day, for that would be my priority tomorrow! And I would do well at it, for I had made some money, and had great chats with some beloved souls, now if that does not make you up for studying!

I realised that life is not so much about time, but much more about (conscious) choice.

Ever since this moment, I try to choose very consciously what I do today, and what I do tomorrow, and on the few days I succeed to do this, I am even more happy than usual :-)

Thanks for reading! And please feel free to comment or discuss, I will be happy to see your way of viewing this dilemma :-)

Animals and Wildlife

Animals&Wildlife around our house, Summer 2011

Swallows in our barn

They seem to live quite a happy life here. They return every year and have more babies, little sweethearts :-)

The ghost-bird

Coocoo!!! :-)

Thundering hooves.... at rest...

Nice view

Hooves up close

Alfred

I 4 Detail :-)

Bart

Good Bye!

Isabella

Bye again....

Pretty Bumbles

Bumbles Closeup

Rikkert

Hiding down the hole