Schöne Pfingsten : Defining a Rich Life

Today is a holiday in Germany, and the city feels quiet and peaceful.  My first month without German class is coming to an end.  I watched my first movie in German!   Der fantastische Mr. Fox.  If you have seen this movie (no doubt in English – it’s original language), please tell me how it is!  It took all of me just to follow the plot and absorb what every fox would say.  Is it funny?  Captivating?  I don’t totally know.  But I will say I’m glad noone shushed me for talking in the theater.  ”What’d he just say, Martin?”

The film had a lot of English signs.  So meanwhile a little boy sitting next to me kept whispering to his mom, “Was ist das?”  ”Was ist das?” every time he’d see an English text on the screen.

What did he mean “What is that?!”  The English signs were the only thing I truly got!  They were soooo easy.  Meanwhile, “Pssst, Martin, what did Mr. Fox just say….?”

I absolutely loved reading the comments on this post where everyone had to leave a comment in German if you could.  Some of you had noooo problems (hello native German speakers!).  And some of you tried to be sneaky by throwing in comments in Spanish, Mandarin, and… well don’t think I didn’t catch that!  Que pasa?  (I loooove your humor.)

I’m thinking a lot about Gadanke, my journaling shop, and it’s been an interesting and wonderful journey already.  I’m trying to engage the business side of my mind with my heart and creative inspirations.  How do I do it?  Sometimes people just look at me like I am out of my mind for dreaming of such a creative journey.  If you look back in history, that’s happened to a lot of people.

I’m also wondering how much to share on Making This Home.  It isn’t because I don’t want to share this journey toward a creative startup.  Rather the two don’t really flow as one entity.  I didn’t start this blog to talk about journaling.  That was always my personal thing.  I started Making This Home to talk about creating a tiny kitchen and embracing a life without all the stuff.  I think that’s what you all come here for.  And it seems I will never run out of ideas for simplifying because – bam! – I’ll be biking from the grocery store and suddenly realize things like, “Martin and I don’t need to buy any more clothes.”  I’ll keep thinking about it and toss the idea at him.  The next thing you know, I’m sitting down to type, “Who wants to join me on a No New Clothes Challenge?”

The simpler our life becomes – and the more I personally dapple with writing journals and smearing paints and pasting photos and ticket stubs all over them because it is what I love – the more I realize a life with fewer MUST HAVES truly is the richest life of all.

Happy Pentecost Monday.  Schöne Pfingsten!

(photograph taken by me while moving to a new state; quotation author unknown)