27 December 2015

So this is another xmas coming to an end. Unlike any of the other countries where we have experienced xmas throughout the years, this place has been at its usual sedate and silent best. The shops closed on Thursday at noon and will open again tomorrow morning, i.e. almost four days lost to consumerism and I pity the poor creatures who forgot to buy enough milk. 
We did fabulous things and until yesterday afternoon when I crashed quire spectacularly once we were back at the car park, my energy levels were amazing, like a reindeer's flying over the roofs.

I climbed a mountain hill (455m). OK, R pulled me up like a sack of coal but still, I got there just before sunset:

I cycled for hours (four, to be exact) through forests and splattering mud, puffing and singing and cursing, but generally elated:

And look, the days are getting longer again:
 
While now I am nursing various blisters, looking at a pile of mud coated jeans and boots and basically waiting for things to take care of it by themselves, there is much to look forward to, incl. a string of doctor's visits and well, mabthera, although I am trying not to think too much about it. Yet. Ok, I try not to.

But at the back of my throat are these thoughts, the images that won't go away, the dread, the fear, the conversations over a xmas dinner with friends back from the climate summit in Paris, about the inevitable loss of island states - people sent adrift, homeless and rootless - because we cannot get a grip on wasting fossil fuels, cannot accept our responsibilities.

I would like to have better ways to write about it, harsher, more urgent words, sending out signs and warnings and signals that everybody will understand until we realise what's at stake. Until we wake up from our pretend ignorance and the fake reassurance that there is nothing we can do apart from feeling sorry, oh how very sad and sorry. 
But really, who am I to wish for such power. I am just as careless and selfish as you all, as we all.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love seeing your xmas photos from your neck of the woods. Looks like the holiday there was quite beautiful. Really glad you could get out there for a hike and a bike ride. Truly wonderful! The video is fantastic too.

am said...

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. -- Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

Would like to believe that as wholeheartedly as Martin Luther King did. And Rosa Parks. And Cesar Chavez.

And as wholeheartedly as Pope Francis on climate change.

Doing my best not to be careless and selfish. Failing daily. We can't do right all the time, until we can.

Thank you for sharing the beauty of your adventures in Germany in winter 2015.

JO said...

We can only talk about it, write about it, and then enjoy the world as we find it today. I'm glad you we're able to enjoy your wonderful outdoor day.

Colette said...

I appreciate when you remind me to think more deeply and care more strongly. It is one of the reasons why I read your blog.

37paddington said...

Your photographs are astonishing. And that was you, standing there, taking in all that glory. Thank you for sharing your journey to the top of the mountain (not hill).