Conscious Unconscious Choice delivered

So, when I mentioned a few days ago that ‘I know what I don’t want, but not what I want’, a friend from high school answered, “that’s your problem”.

In the meantime, 5 sunny days in a row I bicycled south of Leipzig to this lake, 25 min ride. Everyone bicycles in Leipzig, all ages and persuasions. At the Cossi See > lake, I found the first day a couple in their 80’s, naked, just having got out of the water. 59 degrees F outside max, with a breeze. I didn’t have the nerve that day, but a day after I got in, then the following a little longer, and again the following day getting my head beneath the surface, freestyle and backstroke (very limited time in the water), but did it. I then explored the Tierpark/Animal park where I’d go to on the way home, looking at and feeding leaves to goats, seeing other wild animals. I felt sorry for the owls, in too small of cages.

During my pondering over where to live, I was considering Freiburg after talking to my girlfriend in Berlin, she mentioned Vienna as well, so did another woman. Freiburg is small. I checked into Vienna, too large (although Berlin is larger, but familiar)…but I couldn’t make either of these moves. In the meantime, the hostel said they can’t continue to extend my stay. I moved to a smaller 4 bed room alone, after finding weird actions from one of the men in the 8 bed room. I feel relieved for that, but realized i had to step on the gas. I saw one apt in that town where the lake was, Markkleeberg, but it would become completely empty. Germans, as Italians, take all of their kitchen (all components) with them when they move; fridge, stove, everything. A tradition in my opinion that causes much more expense and hassle to the renters.

Now had a deadline. Had to skip a day of bicycling to nature….

….I began again in earnest, not to look for housing in Leipzig, but in Berlin. I updated my ads, WG-Gesucht, Ebay Kleine Anzeigen, Craigslist, and mainly put out my own ads. I had previously contacted people in WG’s > WohnenGemeinschaft = shared housing.

Then today eating my oatmeal in the hostel, I looked down and saw my phone had a call, i hadn’t yet turned the ringer on. It was Klaus. He had seen one of these ads, he phoned me saying he has a room. Previously he had rented it to a Polish girl. He has two cats. He spoke exclusively in German. Good that I can understand and speak it. I called him a bit later to make sure I had the name of the town correct, yes, Kaulsdorf, directly east of Berlin. 1 hour bicycle ride, 38 min. S-Bahn (public transport train line) to the station of this town. I later phoned him to get the address, and he told me, then sent it on the phone. 10 min walk from the station, 16 min. bicycle ride from the house to the 3 lakes by the town. That’s right. I’ve been going to swim every day and to watch and listen to the ducks, and there they will also be. And I see there’s a Tierpark Berlin which is a 25 min. bike ride from his address. 

So perhaps I was consciously/unconsciously choosing what I’ve adored, and after putting out all these new ads, this person found me. 

I then walked to the Leipzig HauptBahnHof (train station) and inquired about ‘regional’ train tickets to take my bicycle, and was given several alternative times, then walked down two levels below to purchase the tickets. I haven’t yet booked a hostel, but have informed this man that I bought the tickets and will phone him as I get on the train, he’ll meet me at that train station and then we’ll walk the 10 min. (google maps) to his house. 

I then walked around Leipzig today, without a bicycle, in the rain, taking some photos of the standing architecture of antiquity that wasn’t destroyed in WWII. I walked in a church and saw that Johann Sebastian Bach worked there for several years, creating songs continually, in the 1720’s, and taught singing… 

So, I actually looked and saw no other responses. He seems fine, gentlemanly over the phone. I haven’t asked him a price yet, I said €400 max in my ad. Also, though there are high rise buildings several blocks away, this is in a neighborhood with self standing houses and lots of trees. 

I feel immense relief, because I think that I really didn’t want to venture further away from Berlin, a city I am familiar with and know several people, and could once again play ultimate. I also put out ads looking for musicians. This man says that there’s WiFi there, hopefully it’s not merely via his telephone. I will wait and see. If I have to ‘commute’ 38 min. to Berlin via the train to go to libraries or cafés, to sit and work, I will. And bicycling home would be like going from Annville to Hummelstown. That was my guess, and it is exact. 1 hr 2 minutes, 11.4 miles. And from Berlin train station to Kaulsdorf bicycling is 16.9 km 1 hr 4 min.

So, I somehow believe that it will be a nice reverse, being in nature, then commuting to the city. 

Feeling relief, even though I haven’t met him or seen the place yet. 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition. The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Me in Berlin on Halloween

Leaving Berlin to Italy – Trieste or a small town somewhere?

Rosenthaler Platz gegenüber von Sanct Oberholtz

I just went to the main train station to ask a few more questions and precisely figure out where to park the bicycle over night to find it upon arriving with my luggage on a bus, Turns out the train i had scheduled has a bomb threat and is canceled ( uh hum, glad I went there today) so the woman agent printed out a new starting point and time and new track. As if in a dream, part fatigue, slight edge of anxiousness, I went through the motions to see where i need to go, where the elevators are, preparing as much as possible so that it will flow in the morning. This is perhaps from the influence of my parents, or perhaps i am even more extreme about taking precautions. I scoped out where to leave my bicycle over night, near where I’ll get off the bus.

Postdamerplatz Berlin

I was able to meet with my friend whom I met and hung out with up until I departed from Berlin, 10 years ago. Great to catch up with Argentinian Mariano, doing well with his wife and daughter starting 1st grade. Still see things in a similar way and harmonious support. I am taking advantage of the last day of the 9 € regional train ticket, anywhere in Germany. Going this last day of Aug. 31st that it’s legit, to Austria by the border. Decided that I’d rather go there if I have to hang out with my stuff all night, than to sit in the Munich station. Then buying a regional ticket via Innsbruck to Verona. Still need to investigate a hostel, and where i might land. Gonna have to learn Italian, pretty quickly. 

Berlin is like a circus of activity. Soooooo many people in the streets everywhere, all night, presumably. Many tourists….blah, blah. The bicycle lane actually freaks me out. Super fast, super determined bike riders, along with those carrying toddlers in bike seats before them and in wagons. Love bike culture, but don’t love rushing, high speed,get over or get hit bicycling. Went to the freakin mac store where Hermann, 1 man show, is still operating very successfully. My bluetooth keyboard magically started working, in his store. He also informed me that one can buy an English keyboard in an Apple store. Good to know. Also got my bicycle very elegantly repaired with a Farrhad Doctor, Bike Doctor – Berlin (Fahrrad-Doktor – Berlin) Bicycle Doctor, literally situated blocks away. They found and exchanged the left gear fixture with one they had in stock that exactly matched the other. This also not a chain, but very small bike shop literally crammed with bicycles. You can’t enter beyond a rope. 

I was so happy to stroll through Mauer park on Sunday to see a street musician every 10 yards, the park full of people on a sunny afternoon and then coming upon the hundreds of people listening, singing along and dancing on the stage to the institution that Irish Gareth started bicycling with the speakers and hosting, MCing with comedic flair Bearpit Karaoke

Bearpit Karaoke

Garth from Ireland who has created this karaoke institution in Mauerpark Berlin, Germany

Now with my repaired bicycle (derailleur replaced from a bike at some guy’s house in Portugal) outside of Aveiro, repaired by not a bicycle shop but guy who is a machinist, creating shifting gears for automobiles. 

Sitting outside of ,Sankt Oberholtz, still owned by Ansgar and evolving and trickling into other areas.

Circus Hotel gegenüber from St. Oberholtz

Blue Heron in the middle of Berlin

I do love Berlin. And at the same time I’m sitting here looking up trains through Austria and Italy and finding that it’s easy to find the trains and schedules and all allow bicycles. 

And the trip continues.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition. The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Happy New Moon – April 29, 2022 – Creation and Destruction – flowers, art & fire

the drawing i did with chalk on the table of a place i find delightful with its ambience every time I’ve gone by, conversing with different people. A boy with his father was drawing animé characters of the cartoons he does, and i drew (french beret style in the French café ‘Le Bon Lieu’ my cell phone series. 

30 second caricature of the cell phone series

cell phone series french style

new plant i purchased and bicycled home with from a local nursery (rather than the big BOX chains) 

Long’s Nursery 1347 E. Main St., Palmyra 17078 (717) 838-2931

Shade combination plus organic cactus and succulent potting soil

plant is beautiful consists of:

Hypoestes (Pink Polka Dot Plant)

Creeping Jenny (Lime green vine)

Trandescantia (Purple/Silverr Vine

Spider Plant

Begonia (flower) 

blossom i found bicycling by that fell off the tree, bloomed laying in water

yep, park my transportation in my room

Palmyra, PA residence burning 2am April 29, 2022

forgot, i saw a fire, that i smelled, and followed the billowing cloud and arrived before the 5 or 6 firetrucks

Happy Earth Day April 22 ’22 | GREEN a film by Patrick Rouxel | wedonthavetime

Trailer – Nature in the Race to Zero – We Don’t Have Time

birds at dusk tulip garden Pennsylvania April 21 ’22

Happy Earth Day in several languages

GREEN – film by Patrick Rouxel – Filmmaker for environmental conservation. His films are about giving a voice to the rainforest and the victims of deforestation.

“Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orangutan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. This film is an emotional journey with Green’s final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity in Indonesia and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for the palm oil plantations and the pulp and paper industry.“

Patrick Rouxel writes on his website.

My films are about giving a voice to the rainforest and the victims of deforestation. They are both a tribute to the beauty of the rainforest and its wildlife, and a means of raising awareness of the suffering and loss inflicted by human development, corporate greed and consumerism.

I am driven by empathy and consider my films an act of citizenship, like a drop of water to help extinguish the blazing fires of destruction around the world. I make my films independently, free of all political, religious or commercial interest. I try to trigger change in our consumer choices and the way we behave toward animals and nature.

My films are either commissioned by environmental NGOs or self-produced, they are made possible thanks to the help of friends. They are copyright free for home viewing and non-commercial public screenings. They are available for free streaming on my website.”

Arabic

hehe Go Figure

et la français

thought i’d throw this in

Love – Loss | Life’s Treasures Hidden Fees

While in the last months war rages – despite worldwide pleas to stop Putin (le putain) and divest from Russia – it is part of the ongoing global geopolitical economic arms race. And in the last several weeks, mass shootings continue sprouting in different parts of the USA.

All of this shadowed by the recent devastating loss ten days ago of the super talented musician and drummer Taylor Hawkins, in the Foo Fighters, whose bandmates describe as having infectious laughter.

I am so sorry for the immense heartbreak that his family (wife 3 children) feel, and what his bandmates the Foo Fighters are going through, particularly Dave Grohl, for whom Taylor was like a soulmate and best friend, who experienced the suicide of his band mate Kurt Cobain, which silenced the band Nirvana at its height.

Dr. Drew who knew Taylor Hawkins well, talks about opiate addiction.

In the meantime, my life moves on. I was first going to write about a recent loss of a small object of value to me, a small dreamcatcher on my keychain since receiving it in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This was during this full moon weekend and a long excursion bicycling on a mt. bike almost 20 miles each way, to be among artists and musicians at the monthly event, the 3rd in the Burg. The highlight, was when the band I saw Friday night, Trevor Hall, did a Foo Fighter cover of Everlong, which I recognized in the first 3 strums of the guitar and bounced and sang with bliss and grief for the entire song. Dr. Drew who knew Taylor

When I returned on the trek to the metropolis to trace my tracks and find the dreamcatcher, I instead was informed that there’s a point where the dreamcatcher has to be incinerated (which I never heard of … he might have made this up in reference to letting it go). And that evening, as I walked on a brick sidewalk content in my heart, a tiny flower pedal as it was blowing in the breeze, caught and attached itself to a string dangling from my hat. It dangled in the breeze, at my chin, twirling 6 inches from my face. It would spin, then come to a stop, then start spinning again, revealing to me the play of the spiraling vectors of the breeze that are toroidal in nature, just as is the structure of space and energy in the zero point field. The theme of my book is the spiraling nature of the universe, on many scale dimensions. So this was an ephemeral gift, lasting a few minutes, that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone back to the city looking for the dreamcatcher. In fact, maybe the dreamcatcher sent this.

My treasured little dreamcatcher probably unraveled and broke free of the key chain, in my passionate dancing. Perhaps it knew that someone else needed it more than me. I believe that it chose to come to me (in Santa Fe, New Mexico) and chose to leave, here in Pennsylvania…setting me on a new path to discover.

And as my friend from the San Francisco days who does Vedic astrology, said that this full moon is about recognizing your own value and bringing out your gifts and pouring your energy into creating your own shining vessel of reality and wherever that takes you, while offering this gift to others and to the divine intelligence, that birthed your life.  What things of joy, beauty, function and value can you create that will be a gift to yourself, to others and to the divine intelligence in gratitude. How can we design our lives so that it reflects our most precious gifts, not only in the outer world, but within ourselves and our offering to others and connection to the divine. What is the service and devotion, and most valuable essence of our being, that we can create and develop?

I cam up with the title after the words. I guess, I’ll let it be poetry for each to interpret.

Tribute to my Dad – Dr. James M. Keiter – on his birthday October 19th

My daddy, James Marcus Keiter, was born on October 19th, so I’m putting out this tribute to his life. He was kind, very responsible and a devoted husband and father. 

Bleeding Hearts, that grew wild in our back yard.

He was a musician, a clarinetist, throughout high school, college and medical school. He decided not to pursue this career however. He also was a runner on track through college as well as tennis player and skier throughout his adult life.

James Marcus in his youth…running track

He had is medical practice as a physician in the first home in Campbelltown (where he’d do ‘house calls’). Later, he started an Emergency Room unit with several other doctors at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon.

He had a love for nature, animals and the outdoors, and shared this with his family. 

He and my mother moved to a new home in Palmyra which was built new on a hill, where the two of them planted 50 pine trees and landscaped a lovely yard that was a nature habitat for wildlife. They had a garden and grew herbs as well.

Here’s a link to spring photos in the Keiter yard, where among the pines and other trees, were flower gardens and azalea and rhododendron bushes. They also had a marvelous ebullient wisteria, which had a thick twisted trunk and full aromatic flowers (which the new home owners incredulously chopped down, along with all the bushes that lined the house in the front which were safe places for birds, groundhogs, skunks and chipmunks to pass through and nest).

Our back yard in the home I was raised.

Here’s a link to photos I took one spring of the flowers and trees of our yard.

He painted water colors as he approached retirement, and then prolifically once he retired. Unfortunately these images that I took have a light glare/reflection from my camera, and nativity about how to properly record them. But i did, and here’s the link to his watercolor paintings (and wood carvings). 

James Marcus Keiter watercolor

James Marcus Keiter watercolor Snow Drifts

My mother Lois and he loved to dance and would go out to dances often.

James and Lois Keiter (with Kitty Ulrich, husband Bob not in the pic) – who were each doctors and their best friends.

They also participated in a gourmet club among their friends, as well as getting together to play tennis regularly. 

They learned to snow ski together and introduced this sport to their children, for which I’m very grateful. 

I accompanied them to an outdoor classical music concert.

He was often working in the yard, which was a wonderland growing up. I grew up among pet dogs and cats, for which I’m very fortunate. 

My father had a workshop in the basement where he’d build frames for his paintings and so forth.

He and my mother read a lot together. He devoured books about history. 

They went to art gallery openings and concerts as well as supporting the local high school team sports games. 

Lois and Jim walking with canes in the backyard wildlife habitat they created.

My parents hosted extended family Thanksgiving Dinners every year for 30 + years, where his brothers, and then their children, all gathered for the Turkey and meal which my mother and father prepared. 

Rest in Peace Daddy ~ I appreciate very much the life you gave to me and my sisters and brother and am sure that your father Charles A. Keiter, a Lutheran Minister (who died 4 years before I was born) and mother were proud. 

World Elephant Day | Elephant Sanctuaries

I previously contacted a sanctuary inquiring about working or volunteering there and learned that they only hire local people. They want people to be available for years for the benefit of the animals. When they are locals, they can receive a long term commitment by people, with whom the elephants can establish a relationship with continuity over time.

I’ll simply try to volunteer sometime when I visit.

Kenya’s indigenously run elephant sanctuary.

Give the gift of Half-Earth | EO Wilson

The dream of EO Wilson can only be realized through the participation of humans. He strives to protect the most biodiverse places on the earth and seas, to circumvent mass extinction – which is already taking place – by safeguarding the habitats of half of the earth.

See how you can become involved!

Be a guardian of the natural world. Our earth is paradise, if we nurture life and save habitats.

Home

Good For All Challenge | Roots & Shoots – Jane Goodall

https://www.rootsandshoots.org/challenges/good-for-all-challenge/

I’m in. Hope you join in also!

Thank you Jane Goodall for a lifetime of risk and effort to help the living creatures of the world and to save their habitats. Thank you for continually reaching out to people of the world to educate and encourage other humans to recognize the beauty and intelligence of other creatures; to respect them and see that our habits and actions can indeed make their world a better place. 

Carol Keiter’s author website | A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion

A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion

“A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion” is a young adult educational eBook.

“A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion” is a young adult educational eBook.

Predominantly a physics textbook within a science fantasy tale; it depicts the spiraling nature of our universe in general and electromagnetism, in particular

“A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion” is a young adult educational eBook. Predominantly a physics textbook within a science fantasy tale; it depicts the spiraling nature of our universe in general and electromagnetism, in particular.

Updated 2021 Version of the (TOC) Table of Contents of Carol Keiter’s Young Adult educational ebook, A Seahorse Tale – A Spin on the Matter of Motion

 

 

amazing discovery and picture I took on the Amtrak train a month ago across the continental divide.

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition
The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

my bicycle