How do you like your life? I like mine light and fluffy… with a serving of strawberries on the side. At least that is the practice anyway… For breakfast today I served myself up a long bicycle ride by the river. Hold the whip cream please.
I am so grateful to have a bicycle to use here. It has been my secret dream to spend time in a city that has a bicycle frenzy. There is such a coolness about life in Hamburg with bicycles like its part of the air they breath. My temporary bicycle is bright green, girls style. It is thick and sturdy like other European bicycles and it rides tall and smooth. It even has a little bell on the handlebar! I took it for a little spin today down by the river and then kept going down the road till I got to my own parental edge – my inner parent saying “Now don’t go too far. You don’t want to get lost! ”
I have been on my own today, at times relishing in the flavor and beat of being in a new city and in a different culture. Feeling like a secret agent wandering through their German world… noticing, but mostly keeping to my American self… except on occassion to ask… do you speak English? Responses vary. Some people look insulted and say “Of course!” others simply say ” little or enough..” and still others simply respond to me in bewilderment in German.. but still very friendly and on occassion attempting to continue a conversation through hands and sounds and movement. Sometimes I want to be let in to their secret German world.
Tonight I am going to a Buddhist SGI meeting. This is an international organization that I joined in New Orleans this year and have made a connection locally here in Hamburg. The premise of the practice is a chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo which can be used by anyone to create change. There is also a longer chant called a sutra that is chanted in the morning and in the evenings. People practice this Buddhism all over the world and it is a way to create change in your life. Tonight I look forward to being with the Hamburg group, chanting with them, and meeting and connecting with new people!
So off for now…. Light and fluffy… like a pancake. Perhaps with a little maple and walnut… A space where anything is possible!
Gypsy Woman 
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