Gypsy Woman

It’s kind of a funny thing to talk about being rooted… when one has lost nearly all of their personal belongings… twice and is currently living out of an average size red suitcase with wheels… but still maintains a modest, closet-size storage space outside New Orleans… But rooted is what presents itself to me… today.

And speaking of roots, the German word I learned this week (who is counting… and how many words left to learn…?) is unkraut.  Kind of like Sauerkraut… except not. Unkraut means weeds.  Kraut means herb or plant… add the “un” and it is saying “that is not a plant” … or something along those lines…  Of course what is unkraut is subjective… One man’s weed is another man’s feast.  When tending the garden at the seminar house in Wettenbostel, the weeds I look out for the most are called stinging nettles.  They grow like wildfire, are very lightly rooted so easy to pull out and if they touch your skin it hurts and you get a red prickly rash in that area.  But, not to worry… I am told the sting is good for you… medicinal in some way.  However, this same unkraut, the nettle,  to a new friend I met this weekend is, well, I guess “kraut”.  He loves the stinging nettle.  Says it is filled with vitamins and blends them up in his vitamix in the morning with fresh fruit for breakfast…

Well my American visitors from New Orleans have left today on their way to Berlin, just the next step in their unfolding exploration of the planet… route and plan determined as it goes….  and I too have a taste and wondering of what might be next for me.  Being in Hamburg has built my curiosity to explore other areas, but I also look forward to returning to the quiet and new-found familiarity of friends and place in Wettenbostel.  For now my pocketbook and my instincts remind me to keep it simple… even when my mind, fears or ambitions are scattered with ideas.

And…I have found so much joy in keeping it simple!  Just this past Saturday I went with a new Hamburg friend on a bicycle ride up the river Elbe settling in on the beach.  A rare sunny almost summer like day in Hamburg.  And this day my naïve American self gets introduced to the easy nakedness of Europe as the beach is dotted with casual naked bodies – young and old… some at ease in conversation like they were talking to a neighbor while checking the mail.  And others standing strong and proud like a peacock.  I try to be relaxed and at ease with the unfamiliar nakedness… Later that day I was treated to a home cooked meal of fresh German potatoes with Cauliflower cooked up with a little green onion and a light cheese sauce… salad on the side.  It was yummy and felt good to my heart.  I love being fed.

Sunday morning I joined my New Orleans visitors as they went to the local fish market.  We left the house at 6:30 am… a time my body has not willingly seen in … a very long time… and we soon found ourselves down by the river in a sea of people, fresh produce and fish, and even beer and a band playing 80s rock cover songs.  We were there early enough to see the night crowd spilling into the morning as well as the fresh early morning faces, dancing among the tables and beer.  I ate a fish sandwich for breakfast and greeted the morning scene with curiosity and… hesitation.

Later that day I met a friend of a friend for coffee.  Having been an introvert for so long, sometimes it takes all of my courage to leap out of the flat and meet new faces…pushing myself out the door like when I was 15 and my mother had to force me out of the car to meet a boy on a first date.   But I go and connect and we have much in common – reiki, Buddhism, love of the outdoors.  He has recently left Hamburg and moved to a small town to live simply on the land, which of course I could relate to.  He also eats stinging nettles….

And where am I today… well in my temporary space in Hamburg shortly to return to Wettensbostel for the weekend to help out with a wedding event… and wondering what is next or what else is out there… not knowing how it will unfold and in all of that strangely… rooted.  Not rooted in this or that or anything in particular… but rooted in me.  Like a seed has grown within me and sprouted wings.  Oh sure I still feel a bit neurotic.  Am more moody than I wish to let others see… but just today and a little bit last week I noticed something new in me…. it was…happiness…  And I found it…odd… So this is happiness… a little “kraut” growing in me.  Taking root… without expectations…

Tags: Travel

It has been a few days since I have been able to tend to my blog.  Water it and tell it hello, say positive things to it so it will grow. A challenge of having interesting times and experiences is actually having the time to capture them, share a view and an experience.  These past few days have been filled with Buddhists meetings, making connections and Reiki Treatments.  And yesterday friends from New Orleans came to Hamburg to stay and visit for a few days bringing a piece of comfort and home to Altona with them.  So I am full.  Satisfied.

Loslassen is my German word for the day although I find even as I type the word it seems to drift away from my mind, memory and lips.  Perhaps that is the very nature of this word as it means “let it go”…I grabbed this word at a local SGI Buddhist meeting I went to a few nights ago.  Put it in my pocket and took it with me.  So refreshing to hear and always a useful reminder!  This meeting took me to someone’s private home just behind the Altona train station.  It was a group of all women gathered in a pretty soft room with magical containers of sparkling lemon water, tea and crackers.  The quieter softer energy of their collected chanting nurtured me and treated me like a friend. Afterwards I received the gift of their company over tea for me and wine and beer for them at a local cafe.  We talked of horoscopes and yoga, cats and gardens, and it was fun. Fun to be and connect and spend time with other women.

And then recently I connected with a Reiki Master who lives in Hamburg.  We escaped to her flat in the suburbs of Hamburg and I took refuge in the spaciousness of her place.  We met for a Reiki exchange and I spent the night.  The next day we had some time to walk around her neighborhood – an integration of suburban shopping and old homes and fields and paths in the woods.

A gift of our meeting was hearing and learning more about her Reiki teacher, Phyllis Lei Furumoto.  For those of you who don’t practice Reiki, Phyllis is the Grand Master of the traditional Usui System of Reiki.  Phyllis’ grandmother Hawayo Takata was the Japanese American woman who brought the teaching of Reiki to the United States. There are many systems of Reiki in the United States and in the World.  The traditional system seeks to maintain the integrity of the practice as brought to United States from Japan by Takata.

I learned that Phyllis has her own internet radio talk show called Reiki Balancing Form and Essence.  We listened to a segment and I got to hear the warm but powerful and soothing voice of Phyllis and be reminded and guided in the practice of Reiki.  In her show she interviews Reiki Masters all over the world, many of whom I knew and recognized.

And for now… there is a moment of time.  Time and space and a quietness moving through the air as the sounds of construction assemble themselves in the background outside my flat.  The air is cool today and I have not seen the sun.  But for now I am content…giving way to the comfort and solemness of the soft lazy day.

Tags: Travel

This morning my computer beeped at me from the other room, letting me know a friend was chatting with me on Facebook.  Happily it was my new friend in Altona inviting me to meet him and his daughter at the local market.  We made arrangements to meet, I washed off my morning face and headed on my bicycle to meet him. He is a new member to a co-op here in Hamburg. While he picked out his fresh veggies and dairy for the week, I got a chance to chat a little bit with the owner of the farm, Kattendorfer Hof.

First a little German lesson… Kattendorfer, that is the name of the farm, and hof according to google translate means court.  Okay, next I was excited because I got to learn a little bit about his farm.  They are an organic farm just North of Hamburg and they practice a method of farming that in Germany is called demeter, known in the United States as biodynamics.  As he described, demeter pays attention to the farm as a whole and how all things are interconnected which gives the food and the farm a sense of quality and balance.  So they make and grow everything!  They grow their vegetables organically, the raise their own animals and sell milk, cheese and meat products and they even grow their own grain which  they sell to a local baker who bakes the bread!  Fabulous.  Biodynamics is more complicated than this, but when following this method, my new farmer friend says, the food just tastes better.  He says his customers say there is just something about his food that is different from the others.

We talked a little bit about the co-op and how the farm sells its food. In the States it’s called CSA, community supported agriculture.  In German it is Wirthschaftsgemeinschaft…. ugh… for now I will stick with CSA… at any rate, the way this works is the farm, in this case Kattendorfer Hof, creates a budget for the year of their expenses including costs and salaries for workers… essentially how much they will need to run the farm.  At the beginning of the year, they divide that budget up monthly and pass that cost on to their co-op members as shares.  So the co-op is paying not for the food, but for the cost, the expense up front of running the farm.  Then every week the farm brings fresh food to drop off points for the co-op members to pick up.  For the purchase of a share, co-op members have a general agreement of how much food they get a week.  Kattendorfer Hof is pretty relaxed about this and doesn’t weigh the food. The members come and choose from the abundance of what is there and take what they need while still leaving plenty for the other members.  It’s a win/win for everyone!… The farm and the farmer is well supported and the customers get wonderful fresh food every week at an affordable price.  At Kattendorfer Hof, co-op members pay 165€ a month and they get fresh meat, cheese, milk, yogurt and vegetables.  And plenty of vegetables!  Right now they are growing carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, sugar beets, lettuce, potatoes, green onions, leeks, broccoli!… The farm is very happy with this arrangement and are getting 60% of their business through CSA… the other 40 at local markets.  But they are expanding and would like to be 100% Community Supported Agriculture!

I thought this was such a delight, I wanted to share it.  Almost like a small miracle.  One of the few things in this world that actually makes sense!  Mmmm.. yummy fresh food!

Tags: Travel

In otherwords, strawberries and… well… avocado.  That last one is pretty obvious for us English speakers out there.  I ran into a little farmers market in Altona today on my bicycle venture out and that is what i bought!  The strawberrries are grown in a little town about a half hour north of here and while they are yummy and they are strawberries…they are not quite as good or quite as sweet as Louisiana Ponchatoula strawberries.  I guess I am a bit of an erdbeere snob.

I am also incorporating a few German words today because it is time I stop pretending that everyone around me isn’t speaking German… and while yes quite a bit of them speak English, mostly… they speak German.  The idea of learning the whole German language is a bit daunting, but a few words one day at a time I can handle.  Erdbeere.

Today I feel some strangely flowering, wind-blowing sense of hope about something of which I can’t quite put my finger on.  Like the wind is blowing through me a beautiful little secret all my own.  And while I am riding through town feeling a little separate and on my own much of the time, this feeling, this sense knows my name and it… well it connects me.  The truth is it actually does something like feed my soul… how is that?

Yesterday I had coffee… well, tea to be more precise, with a new friend from the buddhist SGI group.  I can’t remember the name of the tea he fed me, but the transation was something like ” to give courage”.  He said it is a very ” special tea”.  Sure, I’ll take some of that!  We sat on his tiny balcony on something like the 6th floor. I tried to pretend I wasn’t afraid of heights as we casually gathered, talked and drank… willing no thoughts of falling off the edge holding my tea of courage to dive into my mind.  We had a nice time talking and with him I felt that same feeling… that connection that flows between us, that connects us somehow… like somewhere we are all traveleres waiting to meet each other, perhaps for a day, a week, a year… a moment.  That sense of recognition.

The lifestyle in Altona is very refreshing.  It is somewhat of a small town, a community withing Hamburg.  It has it’s own little scene going on including an old warehouse renovated into an independent movie theatre, coffee shops and cafes lining the streets, and people who seem pretty open, some fairly chic filling the streets on foot and bicycle throughout the day.  The weather is so nice that you don’t need central air conditioning and so far a hot day is one where I don’t need to wear a jacket.

Alas, even in the midst of all this flowing and tea and feeding my soul in this city of chicness I have to admit I am a little… lonely.  Lonely not sure for what or for who… not clear that a solution of another tea, another walk would resolve. So for now, in this moment … I am on my own.  I am sitting in the flat on the 4th floor with the windows open listening to the children playing and the pigeons cooing.  Breathing in… breathing out and open to what is to come… well, mostly open… a little afraid… what’s next… what is it?… we will see…

Tags: Travel

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!

Tags: Travel

I arrived safely yesterday in Hamburg.  After being in Berlin, arriving in Hamburg was like Berlin light… The train station in Hamburg actually felt calm as I breathed a little sigh of relief. Of course it is still a far step from the field, sheep and open spaces of Wettenbostel.  I am staying in a flat in Altona, an area of Hamburg, for July while new friends are away and traveling.  Their flat is peaceful, comforting, open and safe.  Like a little oasis.

The next morning greeted me, I felt peaceful and warm… and then I thought…what am I going to do?  I did my morning rituals including the Sudarshan Kriya, chanting my morning Sutra, and a little study of A Course in Miracles… and the thought slowly crept in… what now?…

I may have still been thinking this when a facebook message started blinking on my computer screen.  I was fortunate to make  a new friend attending a seminar at the house in Wettenbostel and as luck would have it he lived in the same area of Hamburg that I was staying in.  And there he was, blinking on my screen!  He offered a welcome invitation to meet for tea and a gracious offering to meet me at a location that was familiar to me and off I went!

After tea I was grateful to find my way home… and then I took a little bicycle ride around the neighborhood.  I felt a little clumsy in my new town but took delight in being out and around on a bicycle.  There are tons of bicycle riders in Hamburg.  Young, old, flourishing everywhere! I easily found a grocery store nearby, parked the bicycle and went inside to buy a few veggies and some fruit.  I felt the excitement of a child when entering as this was my first real excursion to buy food in Germany.  Living in Wettenbostel our hosts graciousy provided most of our food and although I’d accompany them on occassion, I hadn’t been to the store on my own!  Euros are still a bit of a stranger to me and, although I like and appreciate their bright colors and sparkly metalic accents I am not yet well-versed in spending them.  A sort of ticklish feeling overcame me as I handed them over in exchange for food.  He accepted them and gave me some funny looking gold coins in return. A fair trade.

And now I am at home basking in the energy of someplace new and fresh.  I have a little food at the flat and will join my new friend later for a walk along the river Elbe.  This is a great new place to be…

Tags: Travel

I am on my own and I am in Berlin.  What an unexpected journey!  It is Sunday night and most of the World Cultural Festival has dwindled away to quiet.  My next door neighbors from Latvia have left to return home and I am at home… at the City 54 Hostel…  The door to the balcony is open and I am feeling the cool breeze and moiste air with the steady stream of cars down below.

My friend from New Orleans and I did not successfully connect today, but even so my heart is warm from the day. So many bright faces, singing and dancing.  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the  Art of Living, spoke briefly today during the main presentation in the Olympic Stadium.  Everyone was so ready to hear him speak as he guided us all in a meditation.  He invited us all to simply be with our breath and have a smile on our face and then feel that smile within our own bodies, our own beings.  And that is… much of what the Art of Living is about… teaching human beings to smile on the outside and to practice and experience our inner smile, our inner lightness.

It rained again today in Berlin.  And again it was cold.  The seemed brutality of it all was a distinct reminder of how life can be a distraction from our own inner lightness… our inner smile.  Sri Sri reminded us of the gift of the rain as the German farmers were much in need of it for their crops.  And he also took note that when it is raining on the outside, we need to turn into our inner sun for our fun and celebration.

I was easily reminded of the history of Germany as our celebration of peace was in the Olympic Stadium built during the Nazi regime.  A Jewish rabi spoke at the festival, celebrating his own life and the miracle that he survived the Nazis and lived to see his grandkids.  He spoke of a shift in power to a softer power… the power of compassion.  He called it the heartbeat of the future.

As I listened to that message I thought of myself and turned that message inward.  How often I am so tight and restrictive with myself, my own little dictator, with some outdated mode or model of power and control.  Telling myself to Get In Line! As I took that power of compassion and turned it within there seems to be a little more room for… space.  To wiggle and grow… and maybe even… I don’t know…let loose a little bit… like the hundreds of people who came running onto the field of the Olympic Stadium… running, dancing, leaping for joy!

And I realized that this year, this journey is my own celebration.  I turned 40 this year and this adventure is a celebration of that!  And a recognition and exploration of my freedom and spirit!  All part of my inner journey… in part shaped by the work of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and The Art of Living!

Tags: Travel

Well yesterday was the first day of two at the World Cultural Festival at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.  And my body is still reminding me that it rained….  A lot.  And it was cold.  It was really cold.  I was not the only one in the women’s room hanging out by the hand dryer, warming up my hands, drying hair,  shoes and socks. I heard the temperature was 17 degrees celsius.  I haven’t done the conversion yet for my American mind to determine what that is in farenheit.  At any rate to me (and not just me for those of you who know how cold I can get!)… it was COLD!

That being said, it was one of the few places I was willing to be cold and wet for an extended period of time.  There was something overwhelming and joyful about people gathering from all over the world… connected.  I met up with a friend of mine from New Orleans who also participates in The Art of Living.  She had made plans on her own to attend and we easily connected at the event.  We took refuge in the Yoga tent for warmth, but the time there was not in vain.  While there we saw two Kirtan concerts (David Stringer and the OM Ensemble).  In both concerts people were singing, standing, dancing.  People were waving flags from their counties and you could just feel the spirit in the room and see it on peoples faces.  We learned a little about Ayurveda as well as scientific research on the impact of Yoga and breathing techniques on wellness.

There was a woman doctor there from the United States who has been working with American Soldiers who had been in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.  Before any treatment they were hopeless, couldn’t sleep, hyper-sensitive and barely able to function.  She then taught them the Art of Living Sudarshan Kriya and after they began practicing it they reported dramatic increase in capacity to sleep and feel good again.  One soldier reported that “he felt like a kid again…”

I’ve been staying at a youth hostel in Berlin called City 54 Hostel.  I haven’t stayed in a youth hostel since my meanderings in the United States about ten years ago…  My hostel home is cumfy and safe and my neighbors are a group of women who are folk dancers from Latvia here to participate in the event.  There is a free breakfast downstairs and… it is warm and dry!

In the evening was the big event at the festival inside the Olympic Stadium.  The seats were filled with optimistic enthusiasts as the wind blew and the rain came down like ice.  It was too cold for me to sit in the seats, so I remained under the pavilion for refuge… and occasionally in the bathroom by the hair driers!…  But even amidst all of that, it was something to see.  Hundreds of folk dancers filling the scene, musical performances and the enthusiasm and experience of being present to thousands of people gathered to celebrate life and the Art of Living from around the world!

And today, well today is a new day.  Another day of celebration at the Festival.  It will be cold and rainy today … and I will be dressing warmer!

Tags: Travel

Well, today I am leaving the nest.  Leaving the comfort and security of Wettenbostel and heading out into the big city.  I catch a train to Berlin today to attend the World Cultural Festival!  It is a huge event put on by the Art of Living Foundation, an organization and spiritual practice that I participate in back in New Orleans.  The organization teachers techniques to reduce stress and promote health and they are also involved in community service.  The organization came to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  That is when I took one of their classes and learned the Sudharshan Krya, a technique 3 years later I do almost every day.   The event is a two day celebration in the Olympic Stadium with presentations of international dance, speakers, yoga.  I am so thrilled that I get to go thanks to the generosity of a friend who sponsored me!  I have all my information together, my bags packed and I am ready to go!  I will be staying in a youth hostel in Berlin and I have already found them very helpful and friendly.

After this weekend I continue the adventure and head on to Hamburg where I will get to stay for the month of July.  A new friend there was generous enough to offer me her flat for the month and I will take some time to partake of the city, some new friends and different, culture, space and time.  I am a little nervous to head on out to new place, but also very… well interested to see what is to be… what is next.

This is all part of my practice of going with the flow.  Staying present and connected… as much as possible… with varying degrees of peace and anxiety… taking one step and one day at a time.  Where I get to see what is next.  What is to unfold.  I arrive this afternoon in Berlin and with any luck will connect with another American friend who is in town for the festival.  All is good!…

Tags: Travel

The “D” word.  I spent most of my life trying to avoid it.  As if I ducked into a dark alley and turned and did a fancy swerve enough times I just might escape it all together.  And then I decide to embark on an adventure to Europe.  My mid-life escapade.  My joie de vivre and what finds me…  you guessed… domesticity.

I am visiting and helping out at a Seminar House and as luck would have it, people at seminars like to eat.  And food is made in kitchens and me, being here to help out and be of service in exchange for my lovely stay here is of service… in the kitchen.  Now, it hasn’t been overlooked by my wonderful host that as a child and young woman I did not take the domesticity pill.  We had a frank conversation the other day as he reminded me that dishes needed to washed on the front AND the back side… I admittedly said this was an area where I have… “room for growth.”  Growth.  Grrr.

Upon the advice of my Reiki teacher, I have been approaching my tasks here with the “wax on wax off” approach.  Attempting to be present.  Feeling the soap on my hands as it runs through the dishes… but alas, even in my effort to be “zen” I find that I want to throw a tantrum in the corner and behave like a spoiled child, screaming surrounded by piles of dirty dishes.  After dinner on the third day of this seminar as I was there immersed in a messy kitchen to clean by myself I experienced something I might call “The Cinderella Effect…”

And to top it all, my immersion in domesticity is in… Germany… and for me, being an indulgent water using energy inefficient American… at times this occurs as a challenge.  For you yogis out there, it kind of like being introduced to the Iyengar of domesticity.  Wash the dishes, stand up strait, don’t use much water… or much soap, angle the dish, oop… water running too long… just put soap on one sponge… use as little water as you can, rinse, bend put in dish washer and now… breath and relax.  Yeah right.

I will admit though I am not completely averse to all of my domestic minglings here at the Seminar House.  I have been somewhat alarmed to notice a bit of joy and even something perhaps close to … bliss.. in my kitchen encounter.  I might have a little kick in my step as I bring the pot of food out steaming hot to our eager, hungry participants.  And I may have even… looked forward to… rinsing off the piles of dishes and perhaps even a little satisfaction in scrubbing and cleaning a dirty pot to its friendly happy clean disposition.

Alas… lunch has been served today and I have some time for respite before dinner preparation and clean up.  Tonight a restful night sleep and then joy of joy… I get to rise and prepare breakfast for the participants… and boil eggs all by myself!

Tags: Travel