Halloween
October 30, 2013 Leave a comment
Halloween also known as All Soul’s Day 2013 has returned
Here are Halloween decorations in Pennsylvania – Halloween 2012.
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October 30, 2013 Leave a comment
Halloween also known as All Soul’s Day 2013 has returned
Here are Halloween decorations in Pennsylvania – Halloween 2012.
October 28, 2013 Leave a comment
This is the second time I’ve encountered a video featuring this man’s message, an Australian motivational speaker, Nick Vujicic, who has no arms or legs, yet manages to make the most of every moment of his life. “We become so preoccupied with what we don’t have, that often we forget what we DO have.”
Well, after seeing his message, being engulfed in my own sense of worth and well-being, concerned with how I’m going to make my next dollar, seems petty. Yet, after trying to screen (after putting out online ads) who is sincerely responding with legitimate offers for work and who is trying to scam me, it is rather daunting. The majority have been scams, from asking ‘how old I am’ – after listing my skills and offers for numerous types of honest work – to sending a pdf form asking for my bank account and yes, a signature to send back to them as well.
Per Nick’s video message, what is important in life is not how much money one has, or power, or beauty…but one’s attitude. Yet, I, as everyone else, am inextricably part of a matrix of what we’ve all decided is a currency, exchanging the work that we do. Living in a foreign country, in a WORLD in which ‘nationalism’ prevails, doesn’t make things easier. All the German bureaucracy ( no doubt all Western European countries & US ) put up roadblocks to offering one employment. Yet in the three months that I’ve been here, I’ve encountered a LARGE number of young, healthy capable people from 20’s through 50’s in age, who are willingly committed to the German Hartz IV program. They obtain money from the government while unemployed, ‘arbeitslosgeld/unemployement compensation’ and go through the motions (as if) they are looking for work – just enough – to keep this flow of money coming; just enough to pay rent and buy food. It turns out to be more attractive to some people (a substantial number of people), than to actually push ahead in the work force to develop their crafts. I’ve been informed that this is not at all representative of the rest of Germany, but predominantly happening in Berlin. Reflecting Berlin’s unique history as an island of capitalism existing within the clench of a Soviet dominated fist.
Besides the fact that many inhabitants of the developed world have comparatively a great deal of wealth, at the same time, many of these people have a lot of ‘issues’. Issues which lead to unhappy, unfulfilled lives, resulting in various addictions and distractions. We live in a finance, commercially driven time with a lot of brain-washing, regarding what to strive for. A world which holds up false/photoshopped images and ideals of beauty and promises from material acquisition and power. Messages which are based on false ideals, to stay on top of the game, that actually lead to pitting people against one another. Nick’s point, is to forget about feeling ‘not good enough’. There will always be people who are drop dead gorgeous, or with incredibly brilliant minds, others with fabulous wit, extreme dedication…to compare ourselves to. Yet, each of us has something to offer through our love and genuine joy of doing what we love. Our responsibility is to follow our hearts and find what it is that we love to do, and therefore do well, to offer to others.
To me, seeing all of the kids listening and receiving this man’s message, is wonderful. It reminds me that we do all genuinely feel better when we are kind and compassionate and loving, and can care for what another human being feels. And we all do feel better exchanging positive energy and prompting smiles in others. This has absolutely nothing to do with how one looks or how much money one has in their bank account. Because yes, it is each and every one of us that have the gift of life, and we forget just how precious this is. Nevertheless, I still have to make 150 euros in 2 days, because I am challenging myself to do it. I am also down to no milk, no vegetables or fruits, used up the potatoes, the oatmeal is gone, still ample onions and garlic left. Great that I drink a lot of water primarily anyway, rather than buying anything else. ‘-)) I don’t know if I just love a challenge. Or, if by genuinely following my heart and speaking what I feel, is so against the grain of the consensus of modern society, that not to accept these ideals, appears to be naive and foolish. I say consensus in the context of Noam Chomsky’s messages about ‘Neoliberalism and the Global Order’ excerpted from his book “Profit Over People”. “The “principal architects” of the neoliberal “Washington consensus” are the masters of the private economy, mainly huge corporations that control much of the international economy and have the means to dominate policy formation as well as the structuring of thought and opinion.” Chomsky has been a highly influential academic figure throughout his career, and was cited within the field of Arts and Humanities more often than any other living scholar between 1980 and 1992. His work has influenced fields such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, logic, mathematics, music theory and analysis, political science, programming language theory and psychology.
This stage will pass, but it is now a bit scary
– good thing that Halloween is coming.
October 24, 2013 2 Comments
Now that I’ve remained afloat after yet another day of diving into the labyrinth of job seeking, I’m free to bring together a few concepts that have been – on hold in the fold – relegating this post to be a recap of the quickly whizzing by Berlin events of October. hence, the mid-October Berlin Whirlwind review.
The month began with the celebration of the Unification Day between West and East Berlin. Wir Sind Deutschland | Upwards of 500,000 gathered before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany for Unification Day | Tag der Deutschen Einheit.
Tag der Einheit on the 3rd of October, taking place at Brandenburg Gate, where many Berlin festivals take place, along what is called the Fan Meile, which is what it sounds like, a mile of fans, often centered around the country’s biggest sport, fuss ball.
FanMeile
Berlin’s Fan Mile
Ironically, I was going to the Brandenburg Gate, not realizing that this was the Unification day. I actually told a friend to ‘meet me at the stage’, among 800,000 people or so, to catch the bearpit karaoke, removed from its usual home at the built-in stadium of Mauer Park. Now it was featured in MAXi size, accompanying the Coca Cola sponsored ‘Festival of Happiness‘.
Here are some photos of the German Unification Day taken on the 3rd of October, 2013 by the Brandenburg Gate.
And then the lovely boys singing in boy bands arrived. Among them, The Wanted
I feasted on concepts, along with an assortment of pretzels and wines at the opening evening of the Art University of Berlin’s – Künste und Wissenschaften (art & science) Conference October 10th – 12th. Ingesting the blending of concept distinctions between
Perception vs. Experience Experiment vs. Knowledge, while twirling a pretzel around my fingers. On a separate day I watched an experimental music concert featuring new and old instruments.
Coinciding with the Symposium – squeezed between the rainy days on the 10th to 13th of October, was the the ‘street art‘ festival at Yaam. The rain did finally keep Angelz away from his work. “Street Art Meeting” Yaam ‘Alias’
Here are a few photos of the Street Art Festival at Yaam, amidst rainy weather conditions.
Occurring prior to the start of this same weekend, was Berlin’s ‘Festival of Lights’,
in which I also accidentally to be at the right place at the right time, coming upon the ‘Opening Ceremony’.Berlin Festival of Lights 2013 [caption id="attachment_3381" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Berlin Festival of Lights
on the Oberbaum Bridge – neon street art rock-paper-scissors
Captured above and below, in addition to the fact that it was the last evening of Berlin’s Festival of lights, is that on the Oberbaum Bridge, Oberbaumbrücke, just south of the Warschauerstr. U-Bahn train, is someone’s contribution of neon art which has been there for years. Two circular vessels which light up with the rock-paper-scissors or roshambo game. It’s fun to play against the bridge!. The full moon was looming above on the 20th of October.
Here are some photos I captured of Berlin’s Festival of Lights.
Recent warmer days brought out the kids in all of us, and then genuinely some kids, at Gleiesdreiecke.
I was surprised to discover one after another different urethane-wheeled device dipping into the pool; skateboards, inline skates, skooters and some exceptions, bmx bikes.
October 1, 2013 1 Comment
Since I’ve been blogging about happiness a number of times and then had the surprise and delight while living back in the United States to attend these college courses for several semesters at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania – a consortium on the subject of “Happiness” – I’m very happy to share this with all of you. I’m really starting to like upworthy.com the more I receive the postings. This particular video made me cry, bringing tears of gratitude, to realize what is truly important in life. ‘-)
SoulPancake is, in their words, a brain batter of art, culture, science, philosophy, spirituality and humor.
According to this SoulPancake production, scientists have discovered that one of the overwhelming indicators of how happy you are in your life, is how much gratitude you show.
They did an experiment, and encourage you to do the same.
The experiment, conducted by SoulPancake, can be watched in this short video on the ‘Science of Happiness – An Experiment in Gratitude’, presented by upworthy.
I’ll have to test it out too! As the saying goes, we can’t choose our family or genetics, but we can choose what kinds of people we associate with and our ‘responses’ to situations. I choose to be around people who have tolerance, respect and gratitude along with sharing humor and joy in life. ‘-) Feeling self worth and recognizing one’s value, can be disfigured, if you hang around people who constantly criticize, or for that matter, completely ignore you. Listening to one’s intuition is very important, in terms of moving towards or staying away from people, in terms of how they respond to you. Ultimately, tuning in to what makes you happy and what you love to do most, reflects those things you do best, and the path that you should be following. Often what is truly worthwhile, what has value in life, are the simple things. It has little to do with material acquisitions or wealth, and everything to do with how much one appreciates the little things and how one navigates through the little decisions and circumstances. As a single female, I recently encountered a scenario in which I began sharing company with someone who I felt did not value my presence or company. Fortunately, the ‘red flags’ went up. I can’t be happier to go in the opposite direction, and enjoy being. Enjoy!
Earlier in the year, before even concretely making the decision to return to Berlin, I was also blogging about the Science of Happiness https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/tools-for-decision-making-freewill-astrology-the-science-of-happiness/
The blog links to the Futurist, featuring two articles having to do with the subject of happiness. One written by two psychologists, David G. Myers and Ed Diener on the “Science of Happiness”. The second is about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of the “flow” theory of happiness, in which he hones into the connection between creativity and happiness.
Following are two poignant quotes by Albert Einstein:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Think about it and well, feel and digest what he means!