Late summer evening at The Hofstade lake
In the Leopold´s park in Brussels there is a pond. Ponds are everywhere in town parks; they are this town´s water. Here, in Leopold´s park, like everywhere, lake birds build nest homes.
In the early September mild late summer sun, we pass the pond and see a nest, and in the nest two biggish turtles are sunbathing. The plate-like surface of their bodies occupies the whole nest. Next to it, the original owner and builder of the nest, running under the name coot (I just checked wiki), tries to catch attention of the turtles; most probably to tell them that he/she is the proprietor. It flops the wings furiously (or so it looks) moves its beak along its body – to no avail. Try to catch attention of a turtle sunbathing! The coot´s kids are circling around waiting for the parent to solve the issue. Quite some associations come with the sight. It brings back a reoccurring dream with turtles I had as a child, a distressing dream. It rises the question: Do birds have egos? A bit of ego, for sure. Here, it clearly looks like a passive-aggressive call for attention. Do turtles have egos? In fairy-tales they pass for wisdom characters usually.
In the town when some close to 200 different nations live whose home is whose is quite a pertinent issue. Home is in the heart, they say.
A homeless guy occupies a spot on the bus station across a fresh-med shop where I like to go – he is usually disguised in a blue princess dress,; a reserve of dresses stocked in a big shopping bag. A drinker, obviously. What might be hidden behind this liking? Did his mum want him to be a princess? Was the love of his life wearing sky blue?
Questions, and no answers. Stories interwoven; stories behind. So, I keep walking, observing, balancing between the world of forms and the pure consciousness. Recently I got introduced into a tool (Access Consciousness):
You have ten seconds more to live. What do you choose to feel? To be?
It sounds crazy, extreme but it is a cool tool. For once – the extreme of it shuts the mind up immediately. Mind shut up, intuition and consciousness come to the foreground. I access the present moment. Then, in the very present moment, I choose to purely be. Energetically, the exercise brings a joyful vibration that is difficult to describe. Also, it is so simple, and can be repeated hundred times a day. Into the silent 10 seconds I usually induce a few words: Abundance. Quiet mind. Love and loved. Generosity. The mind quickly slips into the usual mode of searching for “problems” that it can solve. But again: You have 10 seconds…
Fun.
And as life loves to unfold in counter points, like music, I have finished reading a novel A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Though almost unbearable, it is also a novel of love in various forms. It confirms that we cannot fix anybody. We are not here to fix or save anybody. That is the up-cycled fairy-tale that we pass from generation to generation. I cried and admired the purest narration style. It deserves to be among the 100 best by Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/20/a-little-life-why-everyone-should-read-this-modern-day-classic
Also finished 5 seasons of greatly admired Peaky Blinders about the inability to escape the traumas and unhealed wounds by our will.
Never mind. There are tools, there is the realm of pure potential. Healing is possible, natural, and free. Plus, it induces life with sense and purpose and meaning and adventure.
Seasons twisting…
The next day, the turtles are gone. I imagine they just slipped to water when the sun went down.
