August 6^th

 

Last entry

 

Today is the commemoration of 70 years of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a disaster that I hope will never be done again. I feel the weight all day long. I am sure my parents feel it as well and the friends I meet today.  A sunny hot day in Bamberg. A friend of study times in Bamberg who is a vivid hobby gardener and I are watering apple trees and I admire here plot in the intercultural garden. The project is at the Regnitz River 20 minutes from the city center on the compound of a yarn factory where I did a work study 30 years ago cutting string of spindles 8 hours of day in shifts and learn and write about the workers who were working there decades. For lunch I stroll to the Rose garden, meeting my spiritual mentor Anne from 25 years ago from my theology times, a lively, warm hearted and open minded professional and simply a good mensch. She made church for many people a better place. We are talking about the possibility to offer Feldenkrais for clerical personal. I would be delighted to return to the place of my first intense studies and inner journeys, to work with persons on their awareness, balance, physical movement habits with the joy, playfulness and gentleness of this approach! For the tea hour in the afternoon I am invited at my Biblical literature professor, where I wrote my first thesis about feminist biblical approaches (of 182 pages!) and who trained me in critical and systematic thinking. It is great to have talks about biblical literature and research, an area that was once so important for me – my life took me quite a bit away from that activity. But when I think about it: therapeutic evaluations and looking for essence is still my daily occupation!

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting by my holy linden tree, a last visit before I leave Germany again. Sunset in full colors.

I am sad to leave the area. The same time thankful. 3 months sabbatical. What will the future be?

I made connections to work with Feldenkrais also in Germany. But now a start in the US is the next step.

I wanted unlearn hectic and narrow approach of rehabilitation and make place for variation, play, heart connections, grounding myself. An ongoing learning process.

 

 

 

 

 

For you in the Prince Georges Park/Maryland USA area, our open house for my Movement Clinic is on September 20 th.

Address:

 7100 Baltimore Avenue Suite 207, College Park. If you can, come!

For you who “travelled with me” on the blog in Europe and we have shared hours or days with each

August 5^th

One last hike in the hills of the Fraenkische Schweiz. A lovely path by the river Wiesent, the same starting point as 2 months ago, at my 50. birthday. This time we walk in the opposite direction. The mood with my parents is heavy, maybe the upcoming good bye. It is good to be in nature, always a place where my mother and father can be, even if life is hard.

At the end of the tour, my father shows me a natural wonder, the “Riesenburg” (Castle for Giants), a cave that lost its cover some millions of years ago and is a real spectacular place to be. If I ever have a chance to be with you in this area, we will go there!

 

 

 

 

August 4^th

 

Before I return for the last days on this trip to my parents, I visit for two days with a dear soul friend: Ghislana lives as an artist, and down to earth spiritual nature educator in small village between a forest and lake. We walk through the forest to the local elementary school and water the school garden, one educational project of Ghislana where children have class outside and learn about their environment by doing, touching, and listening.

 

 We also sit in her gorgeous garden and go swim in the lake. I so much enjoy a slow rhythm, talks where we inspired each other with associations, walks through the Southern Brandenburg forest (south of Berlin, an area with lots of sandy earth from the ice-age), meals from garden harvests, delicious swims in the “Long Lake” and hours where both of us worked peacefully. We also start planning for a seminar together with Feldenkrais and nature experience. Stay posted if you ever thought to go to the area South of Berlin!

This early morning I stood by the lake, no boats yet, just air and water, trees and birds and I watched the fish, coming to the surface and creating little circles in the water. One circle, then another one, touching the first one, overlapping, creating new forms, the next one, the first ones becoming wider and wider until they dissolved in the lake. Short-lasting beauty but also forever re-creating. I felt great peace about life with its losses, changes, new beginnings. We cannot hold it, we better flow with it…

 

By the way: Ghislanas blog is public and can be seen under http://jahreszeitenbriefe.blogspot.com/

 

August 1^st

This week in this Sabbatical, I joined my godchild Noah, his family for their first week of family vacation at the “Darss” at the Baltic See (Ostsee). A week camping in a very comfortable tent with a sleeping and living section near “one of 20^th nicest beaches of the world”! It was a week of severe storms, rain and cold and I made good use of all my clothes. “My family” gave me a second blanket, a thermos with hot water and the obligatory warm water bottle for cozy nights. In the mornings, I swam for 20 minutes even in the rain, enjoyed being carried by the waves and afterwards a hot shower and most of the days warm family hours with wonderful Noah, his smart and charming sister and their two moms. It is a challenge to be close to a family but still the 5^th person on board. The same time everyone did her and his best to build connections and spend quality time together. I would say to live family let it be social or biological, always touches deep stuff, and for sure I did for me: belonging, connections, being seen and heard, communication, safety….

 

 

 

 

 

On my last day the sun came out. Beautiful…!

 

July 24th

Three weeks travelling into my own biography part 4

Have you ever gone through 15 boxes of your former library, letters from 15 years, photos and slides and need to decide what you can take and what you have to say goodbye to in week? It is a journey in literature that meant so much to me, a library of novels, poems, professional books, art. Pictures of beloved landscapes and people who were dear and important and I took so many pictures and we wrote letters. And today: it is in my heart and biography but the material has to go.

It is a cleansing act and an astonishing trip to the local recycling center: I am standing with my goods that found no place in second hand shops, charity stores, public bookshelves, friends… at a place with at least 20 different containers with recycling goods. The local garbage depot is now called Depot for recycling goods. I am impressed and confident that my material will become something different. My respect!

July 22nd

 

Three weeks travelling into my own biography part 3

 

The local outdoor swimming pool where I always had a seasonal ticket. I had a sweetheart for whom I was waiting. Would he come today? Would he look at me when I swam? And would we go for a walk after the swim?? I had bought from my pocket money a heavenly smelling lilac soap that I used for the shower after the swim. Even today, 35 years later, I know a few people who still go for their daily swim. We greet each other with respect after I introduced myself to one or two. With others we greet each other with the group smile of the morning swimmers.  At home in Brentwood, I am a morning swimmer as well, in our local community pool. Where ever there is a possibility to swim in the morning before breakfast, I am in!  Here in Herzogenaurach is no special morning swim time and serious swimmers met the people who want a social hour and doing exercises. It is good to be early and I got a lane either under the 3 meter jumping board (closed in the morning) or in the children section on the right side. A pleasant routine in a place where I am a guest and need to adjust to my hosts, parents who live a very tight schedule that gives them security. I try very hard to be a good guest, knowing that my presence means a lot but is also a challenge to their routine. I see my struggles to find my place and their struggles to be good parents with their own wounds and limitations. It is good to have this time with them.

 

July 20th

 

Three weeks travelling into my own biography part 2

My high school was at the other side of town and I biked at least 25 minutes one way. One hill down, one hill up. Inner town school buses were rare 40 years ago, as were helmets! We completed a road exam in our 4^th grade and off we were on the roads. How different is that in the US where it is forbidden that kids even take care of their younger siblings under the age of 14.

In front of our school were in the 1980s often groups of strange people who distributed flyers with “the lie of Holocaust” on it. There were banned for a kilometer around the school but got their paper anyway. I wanted to know a lot and also what that was. Our school reacted with a project week for the 10 and 11^th grade. In various subjects we learned about the preparation of the Nazi regime and the 12 years of dictatorship and the Holocaust. I do recall us three preparing a presentation about the “women in the 1930s to the begin of the Nazi time”, meeting in each other homes and finding out how to organize and present the material. We copied a brochure for all the classmates and were proud. 1982 we went to the Herzo Base (the US American military base, a remainder of the 4 sector occupation after WW II, in our area the US troops. We also fought for the ban of the right wing extremist party (the communist one was forbidden), a still ongoing topic on Germany.

Last week my former teacher, now a dear friend, and I strolled through my high school from 1978-1984 today part of a school center. Several school gardens (they even won a price for beauty and diversity of their garden!) taken care by students and my teacher, a beautiful cafeteria I only could have dreamed of in my times where school days until 1 or 2pm even in high-school were common practice.

 

July 19th

 

Three weeks travelling into my  biography part 1.

I am in the town of my parents, the town where I lived between age 9 and 18. Not the early childhood years with the first day in school and my first bike ride. But the shop I used to be sent to get milk in plastic bags (schlauch-milch), certain sausage in yellow skin, and golden toast for Sunday only. I went with my bike. For bigger errands I walked and pulled a bag on wheels, called the “heel-Porsche” (Hacken- Porsche). I was very active in the local catholic, especially in the grass root church with rock music and plans to bring more justice in our society and church hierarchies. I spent many hours in our first local fair trade shop, and we visited refugees in an era before public awareness for globality was mainstream. WWII had ended only 35 years ago and the traumata were still fresh. The same time it was the era where “guestworkers” from Turkey, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia…were invited to work in Germany. No integration and only recently, 40 years and 3 generations later, Germany publicly considers itself as an country of immigration.

 

July 17th

 

Three days family-vacation in the Bavarian Forest, the home of both of my parents. This area in Southern Bavaria covers about 1/3 of whole Bavaria. It is hilly with beautiful forests and meadows, a bit like the Shenandoah mountains in Virginia, but still with settlements, villages and farms.

 

 

 

 My mother enjoyed this nature park for hiking and retreats. My father, his 3 siblings and his mother had to build a new existence in a tiny room in the middle of a little village in the hills. The family Brettschneider fled from Silesia as an aftermath of WWII as a part of the million German Gentile residents of the East parts of Germany that went back to Poland. My dad’s father got sick and died short after the arrival and the young widow had to deal with the new refuge situation. Today, my father talks about the hardship of going in the forests looking for food, but he also loves the landscape and likes to return to the hills and forests. We stay in the guesthouse of a brother congregation that also hosts groups. Every day they offer one vegetarian dish and one dish with pork. It is amazing, the catholic German world and its insider mentality!

 I enjoy the surroundings, the meadows that smell so good, all the herbs in fresh cut hay make me lie in the meadow and just sniff.

 

Forests with blueberries in the size of little marbles, but all nature and tasty! We hike routes of my parent’s youth and they hike the hills telling stories of camping and thunderstorms.

As hard the daily life is for them at home, here they enjoy every moment and we even head out after dinner for a sun set walk. I am touched and try to save the good moments.

 

 

 

5. Juli, Goslar

 We = my friend of more than 20 years, Ingeborg, and I are for a weekend without children and work distractions in a women's guesthouse. The culture of guesthouses, hotels, B&Bs, seminar houses, campgrounds etc. is still available in Germany and Europe although its peak with dozens of places was in the 1990s, the height of a time of active women’s projects. Doris, a daring woman and friend of mine of nearly 25 years, had opened her Women Pension Arleta 20 years ago, in April 1995.

 

We, Doris and I were happy to meet again!

 

Arleta is a Greek singer whom we both very admired. She has a warm and erotic voice and in difference to me whose Greek stayed very minor, Doris would understand what Arleta sings here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBxzjbx9dHk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlZXjje4tq4

Anyway, her guesthouse is a treasure and Ingeborg and I sat mainly in a cool shady corner of the garden and caught up with our lives, while Germany was sweating under more than 38 degrees Celsius (101 F). Germany is not equipped with air condition.

 

I added some information about Doris place and women’s places in Germany/Europe, just in case, it tickles you to explore it yourself!
 

http://www.frauenpension-arleta.de/index.php/en/

http://www.woman.de/katalog/freizeit/

 

 

 

 

July 1st

I am for a week in Hamburg with my friends, former colleagues from my German occupational therapy life and first of all, with my godchild. But today I have a afternoon all for my self and off I am into a special area only an hour from the metropolis  of Hamburg.

German Landscapes – I am in a nature park in the North that is so sparse that it could remind of open areas in Canada. Meadows with heather, juniper bushes, sheep, sheds.  Germany is inhabitated very densly. To have an open area like that is bathing the eyes and souI in green. The German railway had provided me with an easy connection into the Lueneburger Heide and I was prepared for an afternoon of solitude. Unfortunately the bus never came or I had missed it. I started talking to some guys on the street corner and we discovered that they were occupational therapists as I was. They spontaneously offered to drive me to my travel destination. What a beautiful flow of life! We had a great talk and I arrived safely. Then I rented a bike and disappeared in the forest and moor.

 

Soon I was on the ancient salt route:  

The Old Salt Route was a medieval trade route in northern Germany, one of the ancient network of salt roads which were used primarily for the transport of salt and other staples. In Germany it was referred to as Alte Salzstraße.

Horse-drawn carts brought the salt from Lüneburg to a crossing of the Elbe river to Lübeck, a major seaport on Germany’s Baltic coast. However, for the most part, the historic trade route was composed of unsurfaced, sandy and often muddy roads through heathland, woods and small villages, making the transport of salt an arduous task. In addition, the route was somewhat dangerous, since the valuable cargo attracted thieves, bandits and marauders of myriad ilk. The dangers faced by those who make the long trek and the fact that only relatively small quantities of the precious crystalline substance could be carried in any single journey, made moving salt via overland routes very expensive. In 1398, though, the Stecknitz Canal, one of the first manmade waterways in Europe, was completed, making it possible to transport much more salt in a single shipment and to do so with much greater ease and safety. That change helped merchants satisfy the salt requirements of an ever growing demand.^[4] In the 16th Century, for example, about 19,000 tons of the product were carried from Lüneburg to Lübeck each year.

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Salt_Route)

I even climbed the Wilseder mountain  (more a hill), of 169 meters, the tallest hill in the area and enjoyed the view.

 

Later back in the village I returned the bike and the owner of the rental who also runs a guesthouse and a horse cart business gave me a ride to the next train station. German hospitality! I really felt home and in my element!

 

Back in Hamburg I watched the full moon rise over the harbor – here an attempt to give you an impression: