(again) freedom

A never ending theme is the freedom of speech. And, a never ending theme, as long as I am on Facebook, is, the freedom of speech at facebook.

I reacted at something someone copied (a speech) at his time line. My reaction was a bit emotional and just sideways to the topic.
The reaction, that came back promptly was, if you have an opinion, put it at your own 'timeline'. and that made me thinking, because  a lot of people have this kind of attitude.

The question that bubbled up in me is this.

We 'all' have our own area at facebook, where we can post and do what we want (within the rules, of course).  Why should I not react, when someone, who is in my friends list (also who matters, for one or another reason), posts something?  I can add a thumb or a silly smiley, but I can also discuss the subject.
What is the use of posting things, when you then seem to say,  hey, guys, I posted this, take it or leave it. It is MY property.

Maybe I should accept, that not everyone is like me. When I post something (it can be provoking), then I like to see reactions. It happens that I change my mind, during the discussion, or (most likely) not.  It helps to give me insight, in why another is acting or telling things his/her way. 
I do like it so much, to get smarter, to understand others.

Why are people blocking me, for when they post something (about the bill gates conspiracy, for example), and I ask, what the sources for their post are?
Why  is it better for them to ignore my question, rather then trying to convince me for why they stand for an opinion?

I am not sure if I want to know the answer. Because I think I know the answer already.

I better let go. If I can :)

Stones (no bricks)

I am not sure how it is in other countries, but in Germany there is a  'new sensation going strong and that are the 'Freude Steine'  Fun Stones.

The idea is seasy.
Search a stone, paint the stone, lay it out, to be found, somewhere, and, when you fond it, tell it at Facebook, and then put the stone anew  somewhere, so that someone else can find it.

Now, in the time of Corona, many people have much more (free) time then before, and especially families with kids  are painting and putting the stones everywhere.
Of course Facebook remains the place of the adults, they make groups, they make ruels.
As you know I do not like rules (shove it!)  and, I do just what I want.  I can not paint, but I can find, I make a photo, post it, and then (eventually)  put the stone somewhere to be found again.

Everytime I find one, I feel happy and good.

A few days ago, my wonderful and dear friend Margaret passed away, and, of course, that was a pretty sad day.  Two days later, I felt like going on my way again, and I  took my bicycle, with high expectations. Not sure about what... but that there should be something on my way.

When I biked along the small Chapel (guided by a police patroulle, how weird those times are!),  I saw something glittering. I looked better, it was green, and I though, wow, a stone!  And indeed, it was a stone. Not a stone that follews the (adult) rules, also with the group name written behind.  Just a stone. Sparkles on it, at the kneeling bank before the chapel (it is all open air there). 
The child in me cheered up, and I felt very lucky, to have found that one.  I looked at it, made a photo, and then a little robin was whistling, so loud and bright, and so near.

Looking up, I saw him, and I said, loud, hi Mags!   To me, a robin is a greeting from a person that, not so long ago, passed away, and this absolutely made sense, it was exactly fitting my thoughts and comfort.
My voice scared the bird away, so I said, it's okay, Mags, it's me, Hans.. and then, carefully, the robin returned, and sang a song, at a funeral stone, that was aside of the chapel.  I asked if I could make a photo, now it was calmed and was sitting there, waiting until I got my camera and made the photo. Then it did fly away.

I was 'wow' ing loud about this, what a wonderful rendezvous that was, and I had tears in my eyes (nooo, NOT the allergy  :-)   ).  I can not describe what I felt, it was like a whitle light, of comfort and warmth.  The closure of a beautiful chapture, and the opening of a new way of communication with my friend.
I took a deep sigh, and then a black feather dropped down from the bushes, right in front of me.
Now (I think I wrote it before), feathers are something special as well. It are the communication between me and my mother. At different moments, when I need her support, the feather  is coming on my way, no matter where I are.  And this time, it was there again, as if she came along  at our party of friendship.

It was such an intimate moment that I had, there in the middle of nature. Where human and spirits  gathered.  Now, a few days (and a few stones)  later, I decided to write this down.  Maybe none of you can ever understand what I mean.  That is fine.
But, maybe, some people do understand.  :)

Just needed to share it with you,  I love this so much.  Life is real!

Don't believe what you read

Don't believe what you read

Well, that is easier said then done, especially in those days.
What is true, what not?  Did the virus escape from China? Is it a plan, to take away our freedom and make us dependend of...  ... a country, a power?

Many, many theories are walking around, the traces go down to China, until a year ago almost no one heared about Huan, and yet we all have an opinion about it.

How many of us still read newspapers, now we can find all the news at Facebook and Co?
And see, how easy it is to control us, to make us believe things that have nothing to do with freedom anymore. We not even see it, that we are directed by... yes, good question.

Okay,  enough of this bullshit, or even when it is true, enough of it! 
Fact is, that many people die.  Fact is, that the world economy has stopped. Fact is, that no one cares any longer about the essential problems in Africa and with refugitiees, or the climate. 
All comes to one word, a virus, with different names, of who no one exactly knows what it is and what it is doing. Something with breath. Yes, let's all wear masks then.  Yes, and how about the people with breathing problems, who have a fight to breath even witout a mask? 

Everyone has an opinion about everything. And in the meantime a lot of people get busy. Helping others, and for all, helping theirselves in filling the loads of time that they have. Many useless things are created, but that's fine. If you want your computer to search for new life in the galaxy, why then not for 'things'  about the virus, however no one knows what exactly they are looking for?
Why not watch out of the window, and right away report when you see people who are violating the new laws?  The police state in full function!  And everyone all the sudden knows why we should keep distance, and why we should wear masks, and why we should wash hands...
Everybody has a theory and everyone has a lot of time to spread the news.  The news desparately searches for news, and finds people who have sniffed at corona. It are the headlines of those days.

In the meanwhile even my hair grows out.  And not only at the head :)
In the meanwhile, we point to others, and tell them what to do. And we let others tell us what we should do.
No wonder that more and more people not feel happy with what happens.  We are restricted, and everyone tells us why, or why we should not be.

The shelves in the shops fill again with toilet paper. Housewifes sew like mad and earn lots of money with a piece of cotton and a chord.  10 euro for one.. And  all the sudden we all feel save, with something to wipe and somethng so that we can breath less free air.

I do not know what I can believe or not. I do not even know if I can believe what I wrote here, above.
But there are a few things that I know.
I love my friends,  nearby and a bit further.  The forbidden hugs will follow, one day.
I love myself.  I am happy that I can do a little thing, to help people through this time.  We just started, many people think it is almost over, but I think it is not.  Again, no one knows, we shall see what happens.
I love my hobbies. A pity that the bicycle is broken, and I hope that my camera can be fixed again.  I like it a lot from myself, that I not panic more then this.  That was different, not so long ago.  
I think that good things are happening, for who is open for it.
Do not fear, because it will lame you. Do not believe what you read, because it will fear you.

Do live, it will set you free.

And that line, is the only line in this, that I am sure about, that it is true.

I want to live, together with you

Hamstern - Stock Piling

Reading the subject, I think that most of us think it is about toilet paper, those days, right?

Yes, we are restricted in our lives, the dark clouds hang above us and no one can escape.
Sh!t happens,  right?

So, my beautiful Toilet Roll Collectors, are you happy, now you have a stock for a few months?

And if so, what problem did you solve?
Was there a problem at all? Apart then for the people, who needed paper and could not get it?

Is it stock piling what you do?  I love the german word Hamstern so much more ;-)

The principle of stock piling is saving things for when you are not able to access it anymore.
For example, when you are ill, and you can not leave home, and you have no one around who can get your stuff for you.
So... why the toilet paper?
It was a run, but it is over now, and the shops start getting their normal stock again.
Why did you collect all those cans, all those water bottles (you can drink from the tap, you know!), and heaven knows what more?

I must agree, I have done some extra shopping as well. It was basically, because so many people are buying like crazy.  Look into the mirror.  Do you really want to tell your mom, or your children, that you were in the queue at 6 am to get toilet paper?  How do you explain it ?

The idiot who started buying a pallette of rolls, who was it?   Now the entire worlld is pampered with toilet paper, what's next?

People, be nice for yourself. Be nice for your wallet.  Yes, buy a bit extra. When you get ill, you may not leave your home for 2 weeks.
Ask for help, if you need it.  Yes, I know that that is the problem. There are many lonely people, who have no one to ask for help.
Don't be afraid to ask, if you need help.  You will be surprised what happens!  You have nothing to loose, right?

Care for your neighbour, maybe he or she is the one who needs your help, and can't go out for shopping herself.   How should you feel, if you offer help, and you can not get the item that the other desperately needs?
Would you share your stockpile with them?

Think about it.  The time to think 'me first', is definitely over.
The time now is, together we can!  And we will!

Take the challenge, not the paper work!

Bricks in the wall 3

Saturday. 
A two days weekend.
Can you imagine, how happy I am?

Still no trace from that document...😑😑

Very positive ... A lot of sun☺
A message from my daughter 😍😍
After shopping (what is not fun, those days)  there was market 😊
I avoided it, of course, but it looked so familiar 😄

A little walk on a bright and cold day
Waiting for dinner for two
Almost ready

Tomorrow I really  must find the document.

Bricks in the wall, 2

Things come to a change rapidly, but not so fast as the weather.

The lockdown is prepared, it wont last long before we all are in our houses. 

So, what to do with the time.  Cleaning the house is definitely an option, and it will be done , one day.  Now I feel still a bit restless, and I am running around  without being very productive. What of course is not a nice thing, not for me, and not for my beloved.

So, what I go to do, is writing this blog, and then, after it, a bit of house cleaning. I have to learn it again, I think, and when this lasts a bit, we shall end in a place as it was not before.  Just like in the world outside.

Tomorrow I made this photo. It is exactly telling what the day is.  No sun, not much color. But, if you look well, you see a tree behind the house.
Considering that this is the view that we have from our kitchen, I also got inspired by the book of Anne Frank. Who was hiding as well for something bad, something evil.
And in the time, that she was hiding, she wrote her diary.  As I do it now, now I am hiding (well, not always, but more and more) , for the evil.

Spring starts, officially, and the temperatures will rise.  The grey will soon be decorated with a bit of green. It is the lesson that nature gives us.  After a hard time a winter, with not much sunlight (and loads of rain, lol), it now is time to recover.  The tree is already in spring modus. And every day that I look at it, I will know that we are a day closer to the end of this fear.

I will make messages of hope, as if only to defeat my own unhappy feelings.

I will make a plan, this afternoon, what I can work out and what I can do, a daily scheme.  Life goeson and so are we.

The  countdown started.  We are strong, when we are not alone :)

Bricks in the wall 1

This morning I got the idea of starting a little diary, about the things that happen with and around me.
We are in times, that we can not be sure what is happening tomorrow with us, also it has not much use to think about that. The show will, and shall, go on, and the make up might be flaking, but.... our smile still stays on.

I got a lot of crying people today, they were all worried about the virus that is on its way. Well, I must be careful, else I can join them in their sadness, and not knowing what to do.  I need people to talk to, yes, but for all I need to talk to myself, and stop the thoughts at tomorrow.

I got a nice talk, today. Someone who thinks about challenges. Someone who likes to use the time, to get creative, and do something for us all.

I think that that is amazing, and a good thing to realize.
It are 'slower times'  at the moment, what means, more time forourselves.  Something that we are not good in. We are better in telling others what to do.
Now, we will learn to be good for ourselves. And for the people that are close around you.