A quick pit-stop, on an Indian summer day

This is not my best blog post. It is just a little blurb to keep the blog alive. It is a page where I would love to write more, but lack the confidence (and often the time) to do so.

I am writing from a room where the temperature is well above 25 Celsius (77 F), while outside Berlin is blessed by a gorgeous day of sun, a cool breeze, and the flaming colours of the fall.

It is the end of a long week, with meetings and work pretty much back to back from 8 am to 10 pm. Wednesday to Sunday, spent between coffee in unhealthy amounts, sweets and other treats, stress, and very little movement, mostly because I am sharing a room with 350 people, and some 50 laptops and mixers (they give off heat too). It's like I am asking to get sick, but so far so good.

I am writing mostly to commit this to memory. The annual membership meeting 2014 is almost over. It was interesting, but as usual fraught with lengthy conversation taking place inside my head, amongst the various facets of my personality. On the one hand, the huge motivator which was to watch and listen to the former Commissioner of the New York DOI (Department of Investigations). A true anti-corruption champion. Efficient, effective, prepared, competent, experienced, to the point. On the other hand there is the wish to do more of my own, to manage, to direct, to craft, to shape. I am witnessing a lot, but it is hard to convince myself that I am influencing anything. I could influence myself, but by training and education, my preferred venues are a bit far from what is within reach now. A gym, perhaps. A book. But other key items are missing. Time, mostly, but also the mental discipline to set my day in a way that protect the space I need to devote to personal growth.

There will be a closing dinner tonight, and the next two weekends are pretty much taken already, so that will be my time frame to set the plan in motion, to go at it again, and try to become, every day, the better version of myself, and not just a bystander observing life zooming past.

M.

Volkspark thoughts

This should really be the title of the blog, seeing how often I write stuff about this park. A quick update, to share a passing thought. I was jogging there today (again) and I noticed two things.

Number one, the barbecues. You can actually smell them from far away. As you run, your lungs become somewhat more sensitive to smells. Many minutes before I would enter the BBQ area, the smell of "magic cubes" (you know those little white dice used to start a fire) would begin stinging my nose, followed promptly enough by the scent of charcoal and lastly by that a bit more pleasant of roasted meat. The fun part was the smoke though. It was billowing up from dozens of fires; as I passed the dreaded climbing boulder, one shaft of sunlight shone lonely through the treetops. Thanks to that light you could actually see the smoke and get a sense of how thick it was. I thought it was hilarious.

Number two, the slack lines. What is with Berliners and walking the ropes? I am talking about THIS STUFF. There is a whole sector of the park where any two random trees will be connected by one of those lines, some walked by beginners, some by impressively nimble acrobats.

The fun thing is that as you jog you would want to lose yourself in the run, and do all the cheesy stuff that Nike commercials sell you. You know the gist: listen to your heartbeat, breathe in-breathe out, enjoy the adrenaline rush, let go, forget your excel spreadsheets and the office life, tune in with your reptile brain, feel the pump etc... etc... Well, do that in the Volkspark, and chances are you will either end up tripping or being decapitated (some people love their ropes a little higher than others). I thought that would be a little less hilarious.