LIFE LESSONS
Nature From Up Close
It’s springtime and whatever else comes to my mind while I walk through the countryside
Whenever I do have some spare time, I take my camera and just walk. If it’s in Germany, Thailand, or Namibia. If it’s in the desert, in the jungle, or in the fields of northern Germany. A walk in nature always refreshes my mind.
And I always come back with a memory card full of witnesses of nature’s beauty. I return with a ton of ideas. I’m inspired to write this and that.
Or to just be happy.
Not more or less.
“The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go.” — Dodinsky
While I might appear as someone who’s always happy and smiling from sunrise to sunset, this isn’t the real truth. I have my darker days too. But I choose not to write about them.
Mostly at least.
There is so much negativity being shared in this world. So many horror stories. So much pain and hate. Too much for a single soul to handle.
I choose to do the opposite.
I choose to share my joy in life.
I choose to share the good things in people, countries, and societies.
But this isn’t always easy. I get depressed from hearing all the bad news in the world. This is why I choose not to listen to the radio. Read the newspaper. Or watch TV.
I don’t actually have any of those three.
Of course, I still know what is going on in this world. I’m not that person. But I get enough of it through social media and the writing platforms I’m on. There is so much bad in the world I can’t fix.
I can work on myself. My immediate surroundings. I can change the way I talk to people. How I judge them. How I behave. And most importantly, how I talk about places I’ve been to and societies I’ve spent time in.
That is, in my eyes, the only way to change the way people see the world.
Through authentic travel stories.
But while my stories about living in a clay hut in Ghana, seeing lions in Tanzania or living in the oldest desert in the world (in Namibia) are way more interesting than sharing the latest stage of blooming pear blossoms, I have to find a way to keep the balance.
Yes, currently I’m living in Germany. Northern Germany. A part of my home country that is as unknown to me as the life in the Arctic.
Kind of.
I mean, hello? There are no mountains.
Anywhere.
Insight.
Not even from the plane.
I tried.
I really tried to see any mountains.
But nope, nothing.
Nothing but fields. Forests. Lakes. And some windmills in between.
However, I’m still living in the countryside.
Far away from cities, urban development, and actually any housing complex in general.
This is where I am home.
In nature.
If in Thailand, Namibia, or Germany doesn’t matter. As long as I’m in nature I’m happy.
Mostly, at least.
This is where I find peace. Between the valley where butterflies are dancing and pink blooming magnificence.
By the way. This isn’t any blooming tree. It’s a Japanese Cherry Tree. Growing in a small trailer park in northern Germany. Blossoming for me to capture the beauty. Because, even though yellow is my favorite color, I do see beauty in other things as well.
“We become what we think about.” — Earl Nightingale
And here I leave you with this withered dandelion.
Withered. That is what it is called. The bright yellow of the dandelion has disappeared. But in my eyes now is when the second stage of the beauty of this plant unfolds.
This blowball has a long story ahead. It is not at the end of its life. It might make children happy who choose to blow the seeds off. Or the wind comes in and takes the DNA of this dandelion kilometer far.
Who knows?
I don’t.
And I don’t care. I just love looking at it.
The beauty of a somewhat withered flower.
“It is true that we choose our life, but it’s also true that we can choose at any moment to change our path.” — Jamie Magee
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