Tag: parenting

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contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk myanmar Photography religion street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~68/365

Monk with umbrella~ Myanmar

Today I spent a larger part of the day driving around with my daughter from home to school to extra activities, home and school again. We have come to call Monday the ‘fun day’ partly sarcastically because of all the driving, and partly because we never know how it will unfold.

On the last one of today’s drives we both realized that we forgot to eat. This started a conversation that took me to my memories of meeting the Buddhist monks in Myanmar, in Cambodia and in Shangrila amongst others. One of the special things I discovered was that they only ate one meal a day.

Of course they do have their reasons and the discipline they adhere to, but this made me realize how much time we spend obsessing about food , our choices, the preparation, diets and the rest of it.

A dose of simplicity sounds right from time to time, doesn’t it?

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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography

Daily Coffee Talk~56/365

Hi from a cold German Evening,

The world feels more and more alien to me with every passing day. 2022 is proving to be an even more intense transition into a changing future than the years that preceded it.

What kind of world are we leaving our children? They are a generation that was born and grew up in an accelerating age of technological advancement and an ever narrowing focus toward screens and social media with less and less connection to nature and its wonders.

How will they reconnect to what matters the most? How can we guide them towards a more harmonious, connected and natural state of affairs?

Maybe winter weather , shorter days and exploding covid numbers are promoting these thoughts and contemplations, but they are real and dominate my thoughts.

Good night from here and I hope you wake up to a bright new day full of promise and change to the better.

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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography UAE

Daily Coffee Talk~ 55/365

free at last~

Hi my friends,

Lea’s quarantine ended today! We have a negative covid test and the birds are singing again in our neighbourhood. You don’t realise the importance of human contact till you go 10 days without it.

We have been smiling a lot today, hugging and being silly. I am grateful for her recovery and wish for this global pandemic to disappear and allow for a new kind of normalcy to return.

Stay healthy and well. Happy and gratefully signing off from Germany.

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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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children contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk parenting

Morning Coffee Talk~26/364

In the forest on Christmas Day

Good Morning,

Every year since my daughter was a small child, we visited this forest near the town of Xanten in Germany. This year was no exception. I always walked with her there and upon arrival we stopped and took a moment to greet the forest. One hand on a tree and she still recognises her tree till now, we announced our presence and pledge to do no harm to the forest. She always loved this little ceremony and so did I .

If you have chance to read the book, ‘secret life of plants’, you will see the overwhelming evidence that our planet and its fauna are so alive and so communicative in ways we hardly can comprehend. I do completely believe that our presence in the forest is felt and communicated from tree to tree and that intentions can also be felt.

It has been proven that the life of the tree retreats in the face of harmful intent and hides in its roots and that it can actually feel distress. There is so much to research about this subject and to experiment with as we reconnect to this marvellous garden of plenty that the planet offers to us so generously.

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children LEBANON life love parenting Photography

The gift that keeps on giving~

top of the world~_

When you have your first child you become privy to the most well guarded secret: you have just signed on for the most important and permanent job of your life. It looks so easy. Everyone does it. Our parents did it. Our friends and neighbors seem to do it. And then your child arrives! I used to hold important job after job before having my child, each with a heavy series of responsibilities, but I dove into them armed with the knowing in the back of my mind that I can just quit when I choose to. Then came the parenting job, and I realized that this is one job I can never quit!

I would not exchange this job for any other in the world because it is the gift that keeps on giving.

Day 58 of 365~

Image taken of my 8 year old daughter overlooking the valley of the saints in Lebanon, 2012

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Germany parenting Photography

Home is Where your loved ones are~ Germany

The best part of every adventure is , for me, the coming back home moment. I always long to go but I long ever more to come back. Home is such a place of safety, recharge and warmth. When you are lucky enough to have someone there that you can’t wait to hug, then it’s only the icing on the cake.

Day 29 of 365

Images of my daughter as we played around with some lighting.

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children parenting Photography

Inking in priorities ~ Germany 


At this time, a permission is granted, to re-evaluate, to shed the extra weight of unnecessary stresses, to weed out unwanted obligations, to dedicate time and love to those who need us most…

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parenting Photography

Took me by Surprise~

"a story like the wind"~
A story like the wind

the complex webs we spin~_
The complex webs we spin

Our children have this magical way of growing up without us even noticing. The greatest miracle of expansion from a little fetus to a wonderful human taking their place in the world, cannot be taken for granted. It is an amazing thing, growth. It’s a golden truth, magical in every way. It fascinates us, we gush over it and it catches us by surprise when our little baby turns 11.

Happy birthday little big girl~

Categories
children life parenting Photography

Our Fragile Strength

IMG_8285

Today we had a little scare that Lea’s little finger was fractured. It was a close one, but luckily she escaped the worst. We spent some time after that looking at the X-Rays together and we were fascinated by the look of the human bone structure. It is incredible to see how much amazing engineering goes into the mechanics of the human complex, starting with the very foundation of our physical strength, our bones. And then one small accident and we can fracture that strength and spend weeks recovering. I remember breaking my arm 3 times as a child before reaching my daughters age (she is 10), and each time it felt somewhat heroic to go through the whole ordeal. And of course there was the white cast for everyone to sign 🙂

Photo taken of Lea through the X-Ray of her hand.