Spirit of the River

Pukeko chick The people who know me personally, know that I am someone who loves watching birds and also talking to them every now and then. And you also know that Pukeko are my second favourite after seagulls. I never imagined, though, that I would one day have to be responsible for the life of a Pukeko chick. I found it a few days ago on a paddock on the farm - or rather, the Pukeko found me. So I picked it up, and now it's my responsibility to keep it alive - maybe even get it to the stage where it could be released back into the "wild". Maybe it's more a matter of the Pukeko keeping me alive instead of the other way around. My mood is horrible and if it wasn't for the birds (i.e. the pigeons, chicken and the Pukeko), I don't know what I would feel like. What a horrible place this planet would be if it was only filled with human beings!! I feel like it would be the right thing to do to hand the bird over to bird rescue - who would look after it when I...

Even though I have not written much here lately, I am still alive - but not as motivated when it comes to writing these days. That's a problem because writing is what I do. It is part of the essence of my soul - and I feel like I'm losing it. So, even though I feel like disappearing into a pigeon loft and spend time with Lucy (a very friendly pigeon) because she's the only one who really understands me (well, at least I like to pretend that she does), I will first write a little update for the very few regular readers that I have. I try to not let this turn into a too negative entry - but the last few days have shown (again) that life isn't fair at all. And that there is no friendly, bigger power that embraces us all. Why do I say so? Whatever that power is, it did not listen to any of my prayers - I could say what I wanted, I could offer what I wanted and I could put as much energy into it as I wanted - but that "God" or "Goddess" let a little chi...

I don't run around in a warrior's outfit and I do not own a Chakram. I also do not have someone like Gabrielle at my side - yet, I would like to be like Xena. Most people do not understand my passion for Xena - and most people also don't try to understand. They usually do not know much about the whole series and about how all the characters developed during the six seasons. But it doesn't matter. I'm used to not being understood - there's also hardly anyone who understands the meaning of either Michael Jackson or Captain Janeway in my life. It doesn't matter that much what people think. Even though Xena is just a fictional character, she had helped me a lot in life. And at the moment, it does me well to take on some of her attributes. In a way, what I learned from her and other characters, kept me going through many tough periods of my life. She taught me to be tough - to keep going when I feel like not going on at all anymore. She makes me take th...

After I have been so active during the last few weeks, you might be a little surprised to not get as many updates. As you have learned in the last posts, I was getting ready to move to somewhere else. The day of the move was only two days ago - yet it feels like a long time ago or maybe I'm in some kind of "shock-mode" that doesn't yet let me realize that I've really left " my " river. Yes, I can see a river from the house I live in now - but I hardly know anything about the Waikato river (and am not yet motivated to learn about its mythology etc.) and never touched its waters (even though I've been close enough to it a few times). This morning I told the two girls who live in the house here (10 and 12 years old) a bit about my canoeing trip on the Whanganui river - so at least I am able to talk about the river without having a nervous breakdown.... I really can't believe that yesterday only was my first full day here (of this stay). It's a...

Seagull feather In a few days, I will be moving to a different place - I will move away from the city I had thought could me my home and during the last three years, a lot of stuff has found its way into my flat. Of course, I could have kept everything - but I take this move as a chance to go through everything and only keep the things I need and the things I REALLY want to keep. And this made me think about the things that really matter to me and how different people are when it comes to belongings and their attachments to items. I am almost done with packing and in a couple of days, the furniture will also be gone. Today, I packed one of my most valuable possessions, something other people ignore when they see it lying on the streets or in the shallow waters on the beach: Feathers. Some people use them as decoration other people use them for weaving. I only collect them for their own sake. Simply because of their beauty and their meaning to me. I still remember the day when I f...

Sometimes, there are things that make me angry - and usually it has to do with thoughtless human beings who don't think much and simply repeat the views of the general public, i.e. what they have heard in some TV show, what their family says and what they have heard from their friends. One statement I have heard one time too often is the statement about some animals being a "pest". It doesn't matter which animals people refer to . Be it rats, mice, possums or pigeons. I usually challenge people when they talk about "pests". One of the first times was when I still lived back in Germany. I used to live in Heidelberg and many pigeons live in the city centre. I always enjoyed watching them when I was waiting for the  bus or tram. They were beautiful and they had a certain grace. I never got bored of them. One day, an older man was standing next to me and apparently he was a bit bored. He started a conversation with me with the words: "Don't those st...

Xena's smile in the intro of the series It's time that I explain my love for Lucy Lawless a little. Facebook suddenly started flooding me with ads for gay and lesbian dating - tells you a lot about what FB is reading into the things you post on your timeline. I find it quite amusing and my friends also know the joke: If Lucy Lawless ever came my way, left her husband and decided that she wanted to have me at her side, I would not even think about saying "no"! ;) I think, I just have quite a healthy admiration for someone who helped me to discover a lot about myself. Nothing wrong with that - and with some jokes! So when did this all start? The Warrior Princess It started many years ago, when I first saw the TV show Xena. It was screened every Saturday or Sunday afternoon (I don't really remember which day it was). When I was a teenager, Xena turned into one of my favourite shows, however, it was only when I re-watched the whole series on DVDs a few y...

No matter how cloudy it might be, the sun will be somewhere behind the clouds -  i.e. no matter how many dark clouds are surrounding your spirit at the moment:  they will never be able to completely distinguish the light within you. When we have to tell bad news to someone, we often try to sweeten them up by also adding something positive. After all, we don't want to be responsible for the other person's anger, sadness or despair. If we have to communicate something negative (i.e. "I'm sorry but you will have to look for a different job"), we often try to add something that puts the other person into a positive mindset (i.e. "I am sure that your skills will be very welcome in a slightly different kind of job.") I am sure you can think of a few examples on your own. In general, we are responsible for how we react to bad news. In the past, bad news really got to me and it was easy for me to fall into a very negative pattern in which I thought thin...

Napoleon Hill was one of the people who believed that we could achieve anything we want to achieve (I recommend his book "Think and Grow Rich" even though it's quite an old book). He said that our minds are our only enemy and that - as long as we believe - we can do anything. It is also the same kind of thought that is behind "The Secret". Yes, this is a blog entry about the law of attraction and I would appreciate if some of you would comment on this because it would be interesting to see what others think. I have read many books about this kind of topic, with my favourite being "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. It's not really about the law of attraction but falls into that kind of category. It helped me to get back on track with writing. Before I read the book, I had given up on writing. I believed no one would ever want to read my words and that no one would ever pay me to write anything. I didn't believe that the book could he...

The tree was right beside Frodo's bedroom in Rivendell. Gandalf was in that bedroom, i.e. that tree might very well have been touched by him! During the last week of January 2012, I was lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend who is living close to Wellington. A friend who had never seen "Lord of the Rings" before! My mission while in that area was: 1. to turn my friend into a "Lord of the Rings" fan 2. to visit "Lord of the Rings" locations 3. to run into Ian McKellen I managed 1+2, but still have not seen my favourite actor! Anyway, in this blog entry, I would like to show you a few photos of the locations I have been to (the seagull photos will get their own blog entry one day because they deserve it and I will combine them with the seagulls of Taranaki, Whanganui and Bethell's Beach). The very first location we visited was Mt. Victoria which was the location for the scenes in which the Hobbits fell down the hill and then encou...