Celebrating light

The warm signs of January are welcome to make us more awake. When the sun is shining even a little bit through the thin clouds,  I feel like stepping outside and I want to capture the moment.

Contrasts and reflections are making the reality bigger than it is. Like we could watch the streets and the silhouettes in all a way round, 360 degrees. 

I can see the sky on the street, reflecting from the water puddle.

It feels we could jump in there and end inside the Earth. Like the Earth would be just an invisible bubble or a cell that reflects the space. 

But here I am standing on the asphalt, feeling the warmth of the sun and hearing the noice of my shoes when I'm walking. Celebrating the light.

I'm happy this is real,

Celebrating the life.

The light goes through me with a patient speed.

It makes me curious and it makes me dream.

The first Saturday of 2021

So many sunny days to remember from the last year even it was a hard road to walk sometimes.

What I learned? I learned to appreciate the movement of mind and the movement of body. Together these two are making the action possible.

I learned not to wait too long and think too much before taking the action. Because of the still life in society during the pandemic, the limited possibilities, the loss and the fear we read about. It made me realize I have to start doing the things that really support my interests, my happiness and my health. 

Every year I want to start and learn something new.        

*Happy new Year*

January can start

A weather report

I have to share this, because we don't see this so often in Amsterdam. It was snowing this morning and after that the weather got clear again in a few minutes time. Sometimes you can experience the whole range of different weather types in a one day here. Better to be prepared and enjoy that. 

With snow

And without snow

Frozen wake up!

This week has been colder than usual and I like it for a change. There is a thin layer of froze everywhere and it softens the view like a filter. The walking paths at the park are slippery and the air feels nice and fresh. The early morning is a good time to enjoy the peace and reload the batteries for the day. All sounds are clearer in the stillness and in the harmony of a new morning. If the stress of everyday life hits hard, my best recipe and advice is to go out and have a walk. Then the focus of your mind is changing the direction. The circle of the thought is getting bigger and your energy will flow outside and you keep open the way back to the inside too. It is a both way traffic - letting go and letting in.

Even a walk in a rough City landscape gives inspiration and strength to me. A curious mind finds fascinating details on a street level. Life is everywhere and we as people leave our marks and monuments behind us. The different layers of history are present now and some of those dimensions of time will be gone one day. Staying still as a  memory in our minds or  documented in pictures, videos or stories or as pieces of art. 

Somewhere under the rainbow or somewhere under the everyday sky. Maybe the worst way of spending a day for me would be just sitting on front of the computer screen at one spot the whole day. But that is the way many people are spending their days, hardly changing the position, modern working. The technology makes it possible to see the world on the computer screen and being mentally active, but at the same time we should use the whole capacity of the human mind and the body we have. 

I believe that is important every day to give yourself a long moment to collect the information from the different parts of your muscles,  using all your senses and using the skills that we are born with and the skills we learned as a child. Then we can be happy, creative and  a little bit more understanding and accepting the diversity of life. 
Also a moment just being alone and being aware of your needs, ambitions and the whole you. We have to be precent in our lives, in the line of millions of short moments. Being aware of everything in every second would be very tiring, but just remembering the importance of a peaceful break and being a little bit selective for your own sake. 

The pastel shades at the park gave me a peaceful mind today. It was good to feel the fingers getting cold and decide to walk faster to get warmer again. 

 The ice on the water is melting slowly. The frozen details will be different tomorrow if it's going to be another cold night. A good start for a day has a long effect. Feeling good today!

Enjoy your day!

Rain and Sun in Sarphatipark

A very basic dutch weather again: raining, sunny, raining, wind, sunny, a calm moment, stormy, strong rain. It is better to be prepared almost for anything but unfortunately not for the snow. I had my big, black umbrella today and I wear a rain jacket almost every day. This weather doesn't stop me having my walks and enjoying being outside.

I went to sport this morning and decided to have some fresh air after that. This time I was walking in the Pijp, near the eastern part of the central canal ring. I was looking forward to have a  walk in a small park nearby. Sarphatipark is a nice mini, green area surrounded by streets and houses. You don't really get any big contrast feeling to the city life, because you see the cars and you hear the traffic. In the summertime it is more protected, because the green finally covers the view to streets beside the park. Then it is a good place to have a picnic after buying some fresh food from the Albert Cuyp market, a long market street just around the corner. The Pijp is full of houses, traffic and narrow streets. This part of town really needs this park to get a little bit of a feeling of open sky & space. 

For me this is a hard part of the year. I am still used to some bigger changes and contrasts after all these years aboard. It is like a biological clock that is inside me. I come from the North and grew up with snow, ice, dark and big contrasts with the light: dark snowy winters and light summers. This greyness is hard to handle. The best part will be coming though: the spring will come here earlier and then it is like magic. I am lucky I had so many cold and snowy winters already in my life that I can somehow handle this just by remembering how great element the big, white, quiet and sparkling winter really is. I have the real winter in my heart.

Back to reality: I see some green grass. 

I see so many birds having a break at the park. Dogs, school children, joggers and finally even the sun. I notice, that I forgot my umbrella to the bakery on my way. I have to go back to busy streets and leave the park. 

Now it is raining again. I don't want to sound like a meteorologist or be complaining about this. I can see the beauty in a rain drop.

And I definitely remember the beauty of the clear winter days. 

Oud en Nieuw - Old and New

I wish you a Happy New Year! I did not have any time to write lately, but tomorrow the first empty paper of the year 2016 will be waiting for us. There will be time to write again and see everything in a new light. Days will be getting longer and brighter. The outdoor living will be blooming again sooner as we think. This is a funny winter, I already see some little flowers at the park...the winter really never seems to come. I would like to see some snow, but for that I would have to travel back to North Europe to my hoods or to the Alps.

Our dinner has been in the oven for hours and I can hear the fireworks at the park already. It is hardly 5pm and it sounds like midnight. Our quests for this evening are here. Time to have some fun and say goodbye to this year. 

Once more Happy and Healthy new year 2016!

Starting the eve with little salty snacks and some wine...and as usual playing games with our friends.

Toast for this year and thank you for reading my blog! 

Winter beach - Bloemendaal

We went for a walk to the beach in Bloemendaal on Sunday. I had dreamed for a while of going to the beach and looking how the winterlife is there. Because we did not have any other program on sunday, it was finally possible to drive to the beach. I had a big visions how nice it would be to walk there and admire the view. It was not so peaceful as I thought.

The reality was VERY WINDY. I still have sand in my ears and all over my face. It was hard, salty, natural beauty peeling. My daughter started to cry right away, because the sand flew right on her face and it was almost impossible to walk against the wind. I had to have another walk later alone while she was with my family inside the beach cafe having a hot chocolate.

You can't really see how windy it was from these photos(I wanted to  attach a video here, but the video did not work on this site). It was a struggle to move forward, but walking back was easy when the wind was blowing from behind. It was also difficult to hear or talk out there. Some brave people were doing some sports on the beach. Riding a bike very fast near the water, supported by the blow. Horse riding, windsurfing..these people were enjoying the challenge. After a warm drink my daughter went for a another walk and this time she was enjoying it. I think she was first shocked and scared of the hard weather. It was a good experience after all.

The almost empty beach is totally different compared to the busy summertime. Only this one beach pavilion was standing there and open for the customers. In the summer time there is many restaurants and beach clubs in a row, but in the late autumn they build down those temporary houses and move them away. Next spring season they will come back and make everything cosy for the summer.

It looked so empty outside, but this beach restaurant was totally full when we got in. Nice, warm, relaxed and cosy after making a big round on the beach. The contrast between the raw weather and the warm beach club was the trick. Almost like going to sauna after swimming in a cold lake. After getting warm we were ready to have a second walk. We had a nice sunday after a busy saturday when my daughter got her swimming diploma, my son played his second rugby-game, we had a wedding day and a traditional dutch "pakjes avond"= gift evening(Sinterklaas brings gifts with his helpers called "piet"). 

Have a nice week!