Snow in Heidelberg

Two days in Heidelberg and arrived here not exactely knowing what wil be the next country where I will spend my nights in: South Africa or Malawi? No, I will be going straight to more meetings in Johannesburg as thank God I need a visa for Malawi.. Am tired of this constant readiness for work related adventures..

Yesterday was the first day of Spring, the Equonox and after warm winter I find Heidelberg covered with that white poweder I missed this winter... The witch in me misses the forgotten slow arrival of Spring...

http://www.ciae.ntu.edu.tw/chinese/newsletter_3/heidelberg%20snow.jpg


A few moments looking at the contrast between blooming spring and the melting snow... Another few minutes thinking to myself what it would be like to grow up in this perfect small German town... What are the lifes of people who have normal jobs and families? Do they feel the angst to get away from it or are they aware how prescious this tranquilty can be? Suddenly the idea of living in a small town and of having a more normal job without the objective of saving the world seems appealing.

Sunday morning I will wake up in Johannesburg...I love traveling but hotel meeting rooms, however fascinating the meetings, make me feel sometimes as though this is my second home. To succeed in what I am doing I need that home base with someone waiting for me with a cooked dinner.

Am looking forward to going back to Africa...

Having Faith

......And sometimes it becomes just so difficult to believe that having "faith" alone will get us through the difficult times. Faith is such an intangible concept, so ethereal, and so confounding when you dismiss any form of religious fundamentalism.

To have faith, to have trust in the world, to believe in the good in others... How difficult to cultivate faith in the face of all the injustice, all the wars, the momentary sense of powerlessness and despair.

.....AND THEN MUSIC ENTERS MY WORLD...

…she gives me a warm embrace, she carries me, she gives me strength, she guides me and restores my faith. SHE!, LA MUSICA; MUZYKA.

.. .. And when I doubt why I am working for a smaller salary then back in New York City, then I am reminded that I am where I need to be, that I am making my contribution of faith in the humankind. And I thank Jovanotti for inspiring my passionate love for the Italian language, for seducing me with his music back in the cold lights of New York City walking with my walkman through the endless underground corridors of the dark metro stations. And now with my mp3 player, years later, he reminds me to have faith. And Rome is simply beautiful when the wind blows in my face as Lorenzo sings to me when I drive my little motorino... Yes, as much as I love tomatoes it was more then the hunger for taste that brought me to Rome. It was also hunger for music with meanigful lyrics... Thank you Lorenzo for seducing me with your serenatas rap... Thanks to myself for having faith to follow your music.

Here she is, for all of you my friends, listen....

This is Ashtanga Yoga

For those who ask: this is ashtanga yoga. Isn't beautiful? .....Depending on how much time I will devote to it, depending on how much discipline I will gain, depending on how much courage I will have to let go of fear and how open I will be to change - maybe in a few years from now I will get the elegance of some of these magic postures..

This was a very stressful week as the eclipse has stirred up so much in store...and I am still learning how to take care of myself in the mist of the job that is swollowing all of my energies. All I am thinking is how angry I am that I will loose time from practice during my upcoming travel and how to squeeze in a mat into my luggage.

This weekend I detoxed (relatively as the concept is still new) and attended a marvelous yoga workshop at my Ashtanga Yoga school.

LIFE BEGINS WITH A LUNAR ECLIPSE

And so I have graciously turned 30 years old.

I began counting my blessings with sarcastic satisfaction of a pagan goddess/witch/samba dancer and decided to write a love letter to my evil twin sister before the lunar eclipse that was to accompany my birthday's celebrations. I wanted to meditate naked under a waterfall reliveing my last days of childhood, but instead was interrupted by phonecalls from Spain and Turkey reminding me that I (and my evil twin sister) are both very much loved. Since life begins at 30 I felt overwhelmed by the prospect of giving myself another chance. I dreamed of stealing the peaches of immortality from a dragon guarding the entrance to the kitchen of the Chinese restaurant near Santa Maria Maggiore. I want to relieve the PRESENT feeling of being blessed and 30!

As if suddenly good karma has come back... Basking in friendship and love. Thankful to live in Rome where boys at the bar where I get my coffee everydays since 3 years give me flowers (would that have happened in the starbucks to which you go everyday???) Maybe happy to be in Rome and not traveling in foreign lands, happy to be able to be with those whom I love. And thankful, immensely thankful to have so many good people in my life..

Yes, this one is a big blessing. Thank you for making me a moon child!

And here are some pictures from the celebration with/of people I love:
http://photos.yahoo.com/magdalena_original