Month: December 2011
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Seven, December 25, 2011
Christmas day always seems to point to the next highlight or important event, the arrival of the new year in only a week’s time. This new year has been heralded all over the place as a possible end, a new beginning, a major year of unusual events according to the Mayan prophecy of the shifting…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Six, December 24, 2011
For Lea, Christmas is all about cousins. The highlight of her whole holiday time away from China is spending time with her cousins (and she has quite a few!). It is about being silly, naughty, conspiring, playing games, sleepovers, trips to the forest, eating chocolate and simply enjoying every second of that time. It is…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Five, December 23, 2011
Driving across country borders, getting cradled by the moving car on asphalt roads, watching sleepily as trees and electric posts appear to be zipping by, it all can put us in a state of dreaminess and it allows us to gently slip into a deep sleep. I remember still taking Lea for drives as a…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Four, December 22, 2011
It is that time of year, when we tend to intend to much. Christmas is a bell ringer for the next major event, the new year. Every new year, we feel the need for a clean slate, for putting the present year behind us and planning for a better new one. With the great myriad…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Three, December 21, 2011
One of the most beautiful celebrations in Germany during this time of year is the Christmas market (Christkindlmarkt). Traditional food stalls, Christmas decorations, fairy lights, mulled wine, carousels, singing, music, and a gathering of people in the town square after dark. There is something so hauntingly beautiful about this Middle Ages celebration, maybe it is…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty Two, December 20, 2011
The longest of nights, the shortest of days, the herald of rebirth, the winter solstice is upon us. Our planet is reaching its maximum axial tilt to our star, the sun and after this day it begins to reverse its course towards longer days and shorter nights. This time of year is so auspicious when we…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty One, December 19, 2011
The life that runs free, the journey that seeks the unknown, the lightness that is bound by no gravity, the dreams that shape themselves from the threads of the future, the spirit that flies on the wings of her mind, her spirit life…
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Day Three Hundred Thirty, December 18, 2011
Three airports, two airplanes, 2 cars, 3 cafes and about 20 hours from door to door, Lea could not think of staying more than 2 minutes behind another closed door. Out to nature and straight into exploration she went. Her behavior reminded me of the time in New York when I adopted 2 cats and…
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Day Three Hundred Twenty Nine, December 17, 2011
Today, was a day of preparation to head west for a few weeks. No matter how long an expatriate lives in and makes China their home, the sense of belonging somewhere else is always prominent. Tomorrow my little family crosses a large part of the planet’s surface to get a dose of Western tradition for…
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Day Three Hundred Twenty Seven, December 15, 2011
Funny thing with us humans and our values. We seem to value what we no longer have a hundred times more than we did when we possessed it. As long as we take something for granted, then we allow familiarity to set in and we lose the value. It is the same with everything, from…