photo by Britta HügelDear You,
Recently I read that we need "enthusiasm" to feel alive - and I thought: Yeah, that's IT!
I have always been a person who easily falls in rapture about something.
Friends who influenced me were always people with a lot of energy.
The prototype was Roswitha, as I four years old, calling: "Tom, Didda, tom!" (she was not able to say "Come, Gitta, come!" - - but while I talked like a waterfall, she acted - she lured more timid Me into adventures (come to think of it: I lured, but she acted that out, pulling me behind her :-) .
And Atie - my best girl friend at school: glowing dark eyes, full of verve (my parents called that "exaltation" - and they might have had a point - some time after we had lost contact because in her eyes I was too "bourgeois" and I really grieved over that deeply - her parents, standing very high on the social ladder, had to start a search for her by Interpol, because she was trafficking cars to Libanon).
End of October they deactivate the fountain here on the Victoria-Luise-Platz - summer is over - but for me a fountain like that is rapture pure...
photo by Brigitta Hügel What about you, dear friend: what makes you enthusiastic, full of life, bursting with joy?
Waiting for your answer,
Yours Truly,
Britta
PS: The glowing evening sun above is taken through the window of my room with a bay window.
That sunset would do it for me. I still gasp with appreciation of the beauty of the fields and distance I can see when I come to the top of a hill. Pretty flowers, a bunny hopping by, the calls of various birds, the sight of turkey vultures soaring overhead, deer gathered in a field foraging for the last bits of grain dropped during harvest, the sound of my great-grandchildren on the phone... As you can see I enjoy most things.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma - you write so lovely about the moments in nature that make you happy - I see it right before me.
Delete"The turkey vulture" I had to look up on Wiki - I had never heard of it before, now I know that it is not (!) closely related to the Old World Vultures (what a word - makes the imagination go AWOL :-), though it looks as if it is.
Yes, I see that you enjoy most things, and I admire that!
Maintaining and seeing my garden and woodland landscape thrive. Enjoying the beauty of each season and the activities that each season brings: cross country skiing in the town forest behind my home, sailing and being on the ocean, and pre-COVID entertaining friends and family. All bring me great joy.
ReplyDeleteOh Susan, to have a garden (I miss mine) is a present - but to have also woodland landscape surrounding it: that is a dream!
DeleteI instantly share your way to enjoy the seasons - and that is what I meant with enthusiasm: not to groan "oh, bah, cold winter again" but picking up the sledge. Very active, what you do - and a lot of it is still possible at Corona-time.
I am struggling to feel full of life at the moment, but I am not alone in that. My enthusiasm is for quiet moments.
ReplyDeleteDear Tom, I understand quite well what you mean (and will send a private email about that) - but that situation was making me think about enthusiasm.
DeleteOf course, to choose an image from sickness: as long as I suffer from lumbago I am in no way in the mood to smile at people or dance with joy (which I couldn't, come to think of it).
But I see that a lot of people who are quite healthy and secure have adapted an attitude of constant moaning, or pushing their low adrenalin level up by becoming angry at piffle - that is when I want to give them an (abridged :-) copy of "Pollyanna".
Beautiful photographs Britta ..... that pink sky is amazing ..... enough to get me enthusiastic and bursting with joy ! I always try to see the positive in everything ..... its not always easy though ! We should all take a leaf out of Pollyannas book ! Hope you are doing OK ..... I guess you haven't been able to see your grandchildren yet but, when you do, you will be bursting with enthusiasm !! XXXX
DeleteYou got it, Jackie! I also do not find it always easy - but sometimes, I think, it needs a little bit discipline (haha - sounds like an Oxymoron - enthusiasm and discipline) but I shun the word "mindfulness ", that old chestnut...
DeleteYes, I am looking forward to the day when the triplets will come running to greet me - honestly: they start to walk now, and now they are little children, no longer babies - (and of course I want to see them, sob, sob - but I do not only have a heart but brains&imagination too: I do not want to infect anybody... ) XXX
Sunshine is one thing and people smiling, even under a mask, and in difficult times, makes me happy at the moment. We have to search deeper and it is harder to find but it is worth it when somebody smiles and is friendly and is cheerful. xxx
ReplyDeletePeople smiling is so important, Rachel - and of course one can see that: little wrinkles around the eyes and more sparkle in them.
DeleteI suspect that many people are depressed at the moment - they look at the ground (ok - before they looked onto their smartphone :-) - and shy away (which is healthy in these times). And some become aggressive , I think (under the FFP2 masks that happens easier than under the not so safe cloth face covering) - and I hear many people humming melodies while they walk alone.
Yes, smiling and cheerful is a good way to cope, thank you, Rachel! XXX