Tag: daily blog

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contemplations morning coffee talk street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 37/365

Dubai Mall~ reflective wall

Good Morning,

Who are you today?

Do you ever witness yourself changing each time you interact with someone new? The mannerism, the speeds, the outward presentation and even the accent with which you speak your language?

We are like chameleons constantly morphing to meet new situations and it is very peculiar to observe the subtle and sometimes quite glaring changes.

Even in the same role like being a parent, we morph continuously between care giver, protector, friend, disciplinarian and cheer leader.

It is amazing how much we don’t know about ourselves and our human engineering. So much to discover.

Writing today at a cafe in the sun in the dubai expo space.

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art contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 33/354

Good Morning,

It has been raining so much here in Dubai the last two days, it reminds me that anything can happen despite our projections and familiar expectations.

A good resolution this for me this year is openness mixed with flexibility to be able to meet the unknown with more resilience.

The future is here and maybe it arrived before our awareness of it. I hope to celebrate it with art and creativity. It may very well be the language it understands.

Image taken a few days ago in Dubai.

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contemplations morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 32/365

Fireworks over Louvre Abu Dhabi

Good Morning, and Happy New Year!

We are here, it’s 2022 and we walk into this year with hope, excitement and wistfulness.

Fires were sent into the skies around the world symbolizing the erasure of what no longer fits and welcoming what wants to happen now.

I wish for the balance to tip towards health, sanity, happiness and a purposeful future.

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Morning Coffee Talk~ 28/365

My sister and I in Lebanon
My sister and I in Chatel, she is the goofy one

Good Morning,

At her beautiful home in Dubai

Well it’s still morning in Germany, but already after 1 pm in Dubai, so time is playing games with me today.

I flew overnight and as you can imagine it is exhausting to do so. I arrived as if in a dream and after being met by my Dubai resident sister, a favorite Lebanese breakfast and long chats, I found myself asleep on a cute bench under the tree in her backyard to the sound of chirping birds in the amazing mild weather here at this time of year.

Sisters… you share your childhood with them, you share secrets, you fight wars and in the end they remain that, sisters. It’s a bond unlike any other, and to understand it , you have to be one, sister.

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Morning Coffee Talk~24/365

Good Morning,

It’s cloudy here in North West Germany with clouds threatening to rain, and all feels ready to make a pause. Families are doing their last minute shopping and preparing for dinners at home with cozy lights, Christmas trees and gifts that get opened this evening. You can feel and see the excitement of children in their eyes.

It feels like a very good time to hit a reset button and settle into a contemplative place in oneself. For my daughter, it has always been the highlight (of several highlights) of the year and she counted the days till it finally arrived and the ceremony began.

I wish you all a healthy and peaceful Christmas and a gentle journey inwards if that is your aim.

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contemplations morning coffee talk Photography street photography Travel

Morning Coffee Talk~ 23/365

Good Morning,

Do you remember travel? We used to travel a lot more on planes, trains, cars and boats. These days, it’s getting so complicated to plan, prepare for and make the actual journey.

I am planning to travel this coming week and suddenly so many considerations enter the equation. Keywords get highlighted in my mind like, omicron (sounds like an avenger name ), quarantines, lockdown, 2g, 3g, face mask, social distancing, PCR, disinfectant and the list goes on.

Whoever is in denial about the fact that we are living in the age of a pandemic should plan a trip. It’s surreal how much the world has changed in the last 2 years.

In the meantime, let’s keep baking cookies and preparing for a peaceful Christmas Eve, wishing the world health, peace and light.

Well that’s what I am doing 😊

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Morning Coffee Talk~22/365

Good Morning,

This morning feels like a strong sense of new possibilities is here, something that never happened before wants to happen, and the invitation is there to be with it and help it exist.

I think that being human on the planet is the best and worst of all. I say that because every single moment we are given the gift of choice. Only us humans can create, can choose to be good or bad, to create or destroy, to fulfil our destiny or to abdicate all responsibilities and hide behind our screens.

At every split second we can decide what parcel of the future laid out behind us we want to open and set free. Do we step right or left? do we help someone or let them suffer? Do we act in the best of all our society, or just act for own self interest? Do we think of the planet, or only of our personal life on it? The list goes on.

Are we alone deciders or lost drifters on an ocean of forgetfulness? So I am taking time consciously today to choose…

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contemplations morning coffee talk Netherlands Photography street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 21/365

Good Morning,

Today the Winter Solstice takes place at 10:59 local time here in Germany. Our beautiful planet will start to swing her hips back the other way and tilt her axis to begin our journey into longer days. We start the astronomical winter today and changes are expected to happen, well because they actually do.

‘Solstice’ comes from the latin Solstitium mean literally ‘sun stand still’. Between summer time and now we saw the sun’s path in the sky move gradually from north to south. For a few days before and after the solstice, the sun’s path appears to show no change, so it stands still, before starting to change northwards, as our days get longer.

This is all incredibly fascinating to me, and we can never say that the celestial bodies we live on and around are ever boring. So much tradition and folklore exists throughout history about this event, but for us here now, I just want to acknowledge it, light a candle to signal the start of longer days and welcome the winter and what new possibilities my be lying in store for us.

Image taken on a bridge in Maastricht, Netherlands.

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Morning Coffee Talk~ 20/365

Good Morning,

Every morning I wake up with a small excitement about what the new day may be bringing. This sense of unknown is there no matter how pre-planned the day or week is. Some part of it is never up to us, an unexpected event, an unusual encounter, a strange weather phenomenon, a rainbow, a new discovery, it could be anything.

I could never imagine a life where all is predictable, it would seem so robotic and unnatural to what a human is and is designed to do.

So with this new year arriving swiftly and intensely, I welcome change and the unexpected unknown.

I wish you a peaceful transition and hope that many good things show up at your doorstep.

This image was taken yesterday at the Kueppersmuehle museum in Duisburg (highly recommended).

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contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk street street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 19/365

Good Morning,

If you celebrate Christmas, you must be counting down at this point to the event next Friday. Here in Germany, some of the cities like Duesseldorf are lucky to have their Christmas markets still open despite the rising Covid-19 numbers, but with restrictions.

At this point the change and strangeness of the pandemic can no longer be denied or ignored by anyone. Masked faces are becoming the new normal and we are learning to read faces from the expressions in the eyes. A city of masked super heroes who keep on going towards the holidays armed with hope, the will to live, the love of joy and being with family and friends.

The resilience of humans feels like an encoded gift in our genetic makeup. We somehow seem to adapt and keep finding the beauty in life despite the circumstances. History is filled with examples of this and it just makes me smile.

Enjoy the countdown and let’s see what this new year is bringing.