Things I never did...

... will always remain things I never really knew.

Do you have New Year's resolutions? I do. And there was only one I had for 2012 and didn't do, and that will be the one that I'll definitely do as soon as possible. A new year is often seen as a new chance to change things, some see it as some kind of motivation. People wanna do more sports or quit smoking. I guess these two are the all time faves of many people. And I should do more sports, too, so it's also one of my plans for next year.

But there is so much more out there. Why not trying something completely new? There is a world out there, offering so much, way more than we are aware of. So much stuff that I haven't dared to do, like bungee jumping, because I'm just too scared. I have acrophobia, not when I'm on a plane, or I feel safe like standing on a high building with a secure handrail, but when I don't feel safe, ohh my. This is why I can't spend a night in a tree house, or walk on a pendant bridge. And the next thing why I'll probably not do bungee jump would be the free fall, to lose the ground and just fall. And hoping that the rope won't break. But I guess if I could overcome my fear, I might like it, but if I don't try I'll never know for sure.

So that's one of my resolutions: overcome my fears. Fears are good to have and they keep us from doing mistakes or something we might regret one day, but it also feels good after you did something the first time. It made you proud, proud of yourself that you made it. I don't say you all should go bungee jumping, but thinking of something you never did and just do it. There are so many things out there. Maybe you read about something you never heard of before, or someone told you about it - it's always best to do something with your partner or a friend. Be curious, don't only do things you used to do all your life, try something new. Maybe you think you don't like it, maybe you are afraid to fail, to lose your stability, to come out of your comfort zone, but it's worth a try.

New Year gives the chance to change something. To have the will to do it. One of my fave quotes this year was from the sitcom Ben and Kate. I also tweeted that in November because it is so true:

"You need to go out there and try stuff. And don't worry about not succeeding because trying is succeeding."

I had a really great 2012, and I hope you also have great memories. I still can't believe that it's already over, because it seems to me it just started. I thank you all for stopping by, commenting and sharing some of your time reading my posts. This means a lot to me!!! And no matter if you have New Year's Resolutions or not, I wish you all a wonderful 2013!!!

As this is the last post in my first blogging year, I'd like to share with you my fave song from the musical Sister Act which I watched last Saturday and absolutely loved it. When I was looking for just the song on youtube yesterday, I found that someone filmed that scene. Great voices and wonderful lyrics.

Happy 2013 my Blogger friends!!!!

The bought beauty

What makes someone beautiful?
picture by Robby Mueller

These days it seems like everything is possible and there are no limits anymore. When we don’t like something, we just change it. Also the look can be changed very easily. And I mean not the clothes you are wearing. More and more people love to put on some makeup, and feel better afterwards. It’s not a big thing and also I love to wear some mascara, that everyone can see I have eyelashes, because they are that bright that without mascara someone might think I don’t have any, and that looks weird. But in my mind kids shouldn't wear that. And I have seen a few moms who dress their kids like ladies, and also let them wear lots of makeup.

Some guys love other colors, like tattoos. Pictures can be drawn all over the body, and so people can even get addicted to them. They feel in a way empty without the tattoos. I think tattoos are okay. I once actually thought about having a small one on my own, but I don’t think if I could dare to do that. I guess when people want one, the tattoo should have a meaning for them. I thought of a butterfly holding a key. The key is the symbol that I can open every door, so when a door closes in my life, another door will appear and I have the opportunity to open that. And a butterfly came out of the dark, had finally learned to fly, is independent and colorful.

Some guys even go further. I only have to say two words: plastic surgery. If they don’t like their nose, their chin, their breast or whatever, they go to the doctor and let it change the way they want it to. Plastic surgery exists way longer than some of you might think of. Even Marilyn Monroe let some parts of her body correct by a surgeon.
For me this goes a bit too far. I mean when you broke your nose and want that it looks again like it did before that happened, such surgeries are great. A surgery is always a risk, but people don’t think about that. It lets me think of how far would some people go to look perfectly, and can this perfect look ever be reached? I mean it’s like an addiction, once started they want more and more. It’s like when you have something, and then you wanna change it, improve it, make it better or just different. But is this really necessary? Can you understand these people? How far would you go for your beauty? Ever considered one or two of the mentioned things? And why do you think is the look of a person so important these days?

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe

This blog post is a part of the I follow my heart project 

For 50 years the German ‘Welthungerhilfe’ helps people worldwide who have nothing or not much to live. They support people like on Haiti or Kuba. After hurricane Sandy had destroyed lots of the few things they had, 33.000 people were hit hard by that hurricane, 45 people were reported dead on Haiti. It’s no question that Sandy destroyed a lot, many people still have to suffer these days. The ‘Welthungerhilfe’ supports them and other people who have less, and/or were hit hard by such a natural disaster. They want to help these people to improve their lives.

Hurricanes in Nicaragua, north of Costa Rica, are very often. In September 2007 hurricane Felix destroyed many wells, buildings and medical care stations. The people don’t have much to drink, because the wells are often leaky and dirty. Drinkable water is getting less because of that, so when people drink out of the well, the chance is high that they get sick. Another problem is that they don’t have much to eat, and so they are more prone to become sick.
The ‘Welthungerhilfe’ helps the residents to build new houses, sanitary installations and repair the damaged wells. They also help the people planting fruits and vegetables and give them advices how to take care of it, and how to sell the not needed goods most effectively.

The ‘Welthungerhilfe’ does a lot to help people who need the help the most. I think it’s a very good cause, and when you click on their website you see how much they’ve already done and what they still do. You can also donate some money, they will use it to help human beings who really needs it. Inform yourself about it, talk about it, share the website. Many people should know about this and get the chance to help. We could be like them, and wouldn’t we be happy if someone out there would help us? We might complain a lot about our lives, but in my mind, it could have been much more worse.

picture taken by John Martinez Pavliga

For more on Deutsche Hungerhilfe go to http://www.welthungerhilfe.de/home.html (website is in German)

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope you have wonderful holidays with your families and loved ones.
As a little Christmas gift I thought of translating something I found on the internet a few years ago. It's about how a magazine article would have looked like if Jesus was born this year. It might be a bit overdone, so please don't take it too serious!!!!  Unfortunately I don't know anymore from where I have it or who is the author, because I found it this year again on my computer just as a WORD document, after I checked everything I had on it and deleted some old stuff. I guess people these days would react like that if it happened just like 2,000 years ago. So I hope you won't feel offended in any way, it's not making fun of them, as I love the story from the Bible, but anyway I like that 'article' and so I want to share it with you.
For me Christmas is the time of the year to spend with my family, to sit together and chat. Time is so precious, and the moment we have right now will never come back again. So I enjoy to see them healthy and happy, all together, make them even more happy when I can fulfill them a wish. Thinking of them, making them a gift to say 'thank you for letting me be part of your life'.

So here is my Thank you to you. Thanks for stopping by, taking some time to read and maybe also comment what I post here on my blog. I wish you blessed holidays and hope you like that 'a bit different' version of The Christmas Story:

Infant found in a manger

BETHLEHEM. A worried man called the police early in the morning. While he was going for a walk with his dog, he heard a baby crying. He came closer and saw a young family in a stable. Their baby was lying in a manger. After the police arrived, the officers figured out that the baby’s mother is Mary H. from Nazareth, only 14 years old. 

While the police men tried to take mother and child to the police office, a man who could be identified as Joseph H. from Nazareth, wanted to stop them. Joseph got help from three attendant shepherds, and three unidentified foreign residents. They all wanted to stop the police men taking the child with them, but the police handled the situation. They arrested the foreigners who pretended to be the “three wise men” from an Eastern country. 

The Department of the Interior and the customs office are looking for some hints to find out from where the men exactly come, as they are probably illegal in the country. The spokesman of the police said that none of them had an ID, but lots of gold and some maybe prohibited substances. The men defended themselves and said, that God told them to go home immediately and don’t say anything to the state authorities. The chemicals they were carrying are for investigation in the crime lab.

The whereabout of the child won’t be published by now. That this case will be closed soon is very doubtful. A co-worker of the welfare agency told us: “The father is middle-aged and the mother is definitely underage. We are currently checking their relationship.”

Mary was brought to the hospital in Bethlehem for medical and psychiatric tests. Her mental condition will be examine carefully, because she said that she’s still a virgin and the infant’s father is God.

The head of the psychiatry wrote an official anouncement: “I don’t tell anybody what to believe, but when their belief puts their baby at risk, like in this case, I have to classify these people as dangerous. The fact that some kind of drugs, probably brought from the foreign residents, were also near the infant, strengthens my opinion. But I’m quite sure that in a few years all of them will be fine again when they accept the individual treatment and work well with the doctors.”

The last informaton we got, was from the attendant shepherds who claimed that a very tall man in a white nightgown and with wings (!) told them to go to the stable and celebrate the newborn’s birth. The spokesman of the drug squad said about that: “That is really the most silly excuse of stoned junkies I’ve ever heard.”

picture from psdeluxe

Welcome new world

Imagine you waited for something and then nothing happened at all. People told you so many things and you were excited, though you were also quite sure that it's more like a fairytale than an actual 'thing'. Anyway, so many talked about it. It was in the newspaper, in magazines, on the TV and radio. Some guys even did a movie about it. So you were waiting, till that day. The big day. Everything will change, nothing will be what it was.

The day is today. But what has changed? When I look outside my window all seems pretty normal. It's cloudy and it rains a bit, but that's all. No flood or storm that is taking everything away. No burning sky. Nothing. Just another day. So what had happened? What was the big change? What did some people expect to happen?

I am not a scientist, though I'm very interested in it, and I never believed in the story. Why should this be the end of the world, of our existence? Only because the Mayan calendar ended today? So this is it: the Mayan Apocalypse. The big end of the world we know. Everyone seemed to be afraid, counting down the days, but it was more or less just like a show. Because people bought tons of Christmas presents, spent lots of money anyway.  And if today would be the last day, we would not have another Christmas anymore. So I guess not really lots of people believed in this.
Maybe it was only something to talk about, a topic for everyone. I mean we all live on this planet, so when it will disappear, we all will disappear, too.

You don't have to be a scientist to know that it's illogical. Why would the world end from one day to the next? Did some people expect another big bang or something? Or are we now just in another universe, or does everything still looks the same but it's not? Is this the end of people fighting against each other, of all the bad stuff that happened? Is it the end of politicians who stop talking and finally start doing something?


Do we want a change? Yes. Do we need it? Yes. Many people realized that. It only makes me sad, that something so bad had to happen. But that change, thinking differently about guns and weapons, started last week. It had nothing to do with the Mayans. Life is what makes, inspires us and let us think differently, and not a calendar. No end can be predicted. And we would be way more frightened when this would be possible. We have to enjoy our life, learn from the mistakes we made. That's how we change. In fact every day is a new chance for a change. Every day can be a new start. The end is not here, but the beginning is. As often as people talked about the apocalypse, it never happened. It can only be predicted in a movie, but we're not in a movie.

Nothing has changed. Today is just another day, another day closer to Christmas. Another beginning. We celebrate Jesus' birth. Then there will be a new year, another start. So when one day passed by, the next will come. That's the only thing we know for sure. And the apocalypse? Well, the end never comes alone, it's always followed by the beginning. So maybe it is today, but when it is, it will also be tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Just imagine there is an apocalypse, but nobody notices.

Why?

Since last Friday that's the only question I have in my head. Why? I keep asking myself that, but there's no answer. I can't find one. Nothing would explain why this had to happen. There is no explanation for that. I don't have any words for it. What brings someone to do that? To shoot at small children?

This all made me very sad, and all my thoughts and prayers go to the families of the victims. The gunman took 27 lives, and destroyed their families. Kids who will never come back, who will never smile, never play, never laugh again. They died, and big parts of their parents died too. How hard must it be for them? No one can put that into words.

When I firstly read about it on Twitter, I read an article which was about a teacher trying to protect the kids and calm them down when even she was horrified. The kids were frightened, and one said: "I only want to be home for Christmas." And the teacher replied: "You'll all have Christmas and Hanukkah. All will be fine."
That really touched me and I had tears in my eyes.

Christmas is the time people should come together, families come together. We all work the whole year, some do that far away from their parents and families or have to travel a lot, but on Christmas - we are all together. Christmas and also Hanukkah are both holidays that remind us of the good things that happen, holidays of love and joy. I don't want to think about next week, when I think of the families who lost their angels.

So, there's still the question: Why? WHY? A question that is mostly asked by kids, kids who are curious, kids who want to know, want to learn things, to be prepared for life, to have their own life. That's why they go to school. But 20 kids can never ask anymore. 12 girls and 8 boys - all only 6 or 7 years old. Innocent people who had their whole life ahead. Now the whole world asks the one question: Why?

Where do we live when not even at school our kids are safe? - Just one of many questions I read on the internet. Questions that keeps me thinking and sad. It was not because of the teachers, no, they protected the children, tried to calm them down. Like Vickie Soto, 27, she's a real hero for me. She died because she shielded the kids, saved some of them. She loved them all, loved to teach. She gave her life trying to protect them.

Today are the first funerals. The funerals of young children who are supposed to live. Who are supposed to have a life. I'm thinking of the kids, teachers and their families. Praying. Hoping that such a tragedy will never happen again. And I keep asking WHY?



Don't let us forget the victims. 

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The grown-up simulation

Kids want to become an adult as quickly as possible. But what when they are one? When they reach a point in life and want to be a kid again? Having such an easy-going life, a huge fantasy in which everything can happen. What a peaceful world. They don't have responsibility for anything, they just live and every single day is a new adventure. Children play the whole day, they get a register and play bank teller. And the next day they are a doctor. Kids can be whatever they want, whenever they want it. Isn't that great? And their parents protect them no matter what they do.

It's great to be a kid, but so often we want the opposite of what we have, of what we are. So a kid wants to have more rights, makes her own decisions, and doesn't want to hear stuff like "this is a grown-up talk, go playing". I heard that when I was a kid, mostly when we visited my grandma once a week. So my mom wanted to talk to her mom, which I can understand now, but back then... Well, when you are a kid, you have to be the number 1. You want your family to go where you want to go, you want to talk with them about your favorite topics and play with them when and what you want. But one day you'll realize, life is not only about you.

When I started to watch The Big Bang Theory about 1 1/2 years ago, and saw some videos on youtube afterwards, I could not understand why so many guys like Sheldon. He seemed to me the weirdest person of them all. But after I saw Jim doing interviews, I started to like him and so I kept focusing on Sheldon. I still see Jim in him, and so I like him now too, but I think people like Sheldon for what he is. Just himself. He is like a kid, who loves to play and who loves to be the number 1. And to be honest: who doesn't like that?

The thing is when we get older, we try to fit in, like to a group of people. We want to be liked by others, and because they are not our parents of who we can be sure that they like is no matter what we do, say or how we look like, we start acting. But sometimes when we act too much, we can lose ourselves in it. And this is when we stop being who we really are. The best thing of being a kid is, being simply yourself. They do not care that much what others think about them, because they know one thing certainly, and that is the only thing that really matters: my parents will love me.

Acting the whole time can be exhausting. It's a hard job, but we want to fit into the society, and so we go out, every single day, not playing, but acting. Life is a play, the stage is everywhere we go and we are the protagonists of our own play, doing our best that the audience, the people around us, like what they see. That they want to get in touch with us, maybe even work with us. We want to be loved, and think the more people love us the better. You can see that on Twitter or Facebook. When kids grow older and become teenagers they mostly think they are only great when the have thousands of followers or friends. But is that amount important? Does this mean I am not likeable only because I don't have as many followers as Lady Gaga?

Even Sheldon is growing up now, realizing that a relationship is between two people, and both are important. Life is not about one person. We all need each other. We can't expect people to like us, when we don't show that these guys are important to us, too. We want to be their number 1, and they want to be our number 1, it's all about give and take. And isn't it great to take care of someone you love? No matter how far his relationship will go, he will always stay Sheldon. A man who loves to play, to might do some stuff of which some other guy might say it's odd. But who cares? The people who are important will like him anyway, for just the way he is. That he dares to be himself.

I'll always be on your side

We need to grow up, to get through life, but we should also keep our childish side. We shouldn't stop playing, we should allow us to do sometimes some childish things, and think less about what others could think about us. You can act, and when someone's not liking you, just say you acted the wrong way, but it's braver to act who you really are. People who don't like you then, aren't worth to be part of your life. Because it's not important how many people like you, it's important that you are liked by the persons you love. And the ones who really love you, like your family and friends, love you the way you are, and not what you try to pretend to be.