Germany VI

Dear friends,

following my inner voice (‚go for the summer to Germany‘) I booked yesterday a flight back to India. – Summer started at 21th of June and ends at 21th of September -. I will leave Germany/Bremen at the 25th and arrive at the 26th of September in India in the very early morning. Announcing this, I suddenly had a invitation to Mandi (between Daramshala and Shimla), which I happily exepted today. I will get a bus from Kashmir gate in Delhi at still early morning and arrive in the evening there. Its good for arriving, acclimatisation and jet lag couring, and meeting again Sangeet’s and Tanu’s friendly family. From there I will take after some days another bus to Nogli (little village close to Rampur). From Nogli I have to walk to Haridwar, a gab I had left earlier, because of Visa issues. This is about 400 km and I plan the whole October for it.

My knee
Again my inner voice announced earlier ‚after (the summer in Germany) you can walk all the rest (of the peace walk) in one segment. I did let go of my doubts, that I am not able to do so, because of my knee(’s), and continued doing exercises and ….  The most effective was and is continuing walking barefoot. Since I dropped my old sandals I rarely use the flipflops. It is just fine now and I hope very much, that I can continue walking barefoot in India, even though the atmosphere is much dryer. Then I got some more unexpected help with the knee issue. While visiting Elisabeth in northern Germany, she offered me, to make reel to both of my knees, with a tincture of  ’savior sharp‘ (in German its ‚Retterspitz‘). I could immediately feel a reaction on some lines in my upper leg. Third I started using knee pillows in meditation. All together right now, and already some weeks earlier, knee trouble was gone. Only about a week ago, there was a little mini ‚remembrance‘ to feel ….
Future will show more wisdom

Holiday with my mother
My main reason coming to Germany was to see my mother ‚Inge‘, 81, and make her happy. With my father ‚Bernhard‘, 83, beeing with demencia in a nursery home, her mind circles a lot around this situation. On top she is often very nervous and there are some issues with this, too. So I invited her to a holiday on the island of Amrum, where I had been weeks before, to recover. We took our bicycles in the train, so we had peaceful transportation on the island. This year, in the beginning of September, weather rapidly changed to autumn. On the ferry towards our destination a fascinating rain-storm-sun-cloud-changing-colour-scenery made every passenger be amazed and totally silent…. Absolutely beautiful. Arriving the clouds again opened monsun like up and we had a very wet welcome, but luckily found a small shelter spot.
Every day we cycled, walked or did other little trips. Beachside, watt side with low or high tight, a concert, a meal in a restaurant or an ice cream/cake, forest or just smelling the typical Amrum island smell, went to the dunes and overview points on the island….. And …. we talked a lot, started a family tree of her family side, played some board games, reading, writing, cooking. Sometimes I surprised her with little things, like breakfast under trees or a picnic in the dunes close to a dune lake…. and she was always so grateful.
My mother realized, that she has not so much power anymore. ‚Now, I am really realizing, that I get old‘ she said. One day, we went for a 9 km ride with the bike. 4,5 km one way. Coming back, having a big break on a bench at the beach side and a cake in a cafe, she said totally exhausted ‚I guess, this have been at least 25 km‘.
The weather was much better, than we saw in the weather forecast. They were a lot of days with sunshine and only 1 1/2 rain days.
After one week – we went for 10 days – I realized, that she relaxed much more in herself.
And she could really enjoy her time on the island. A few times she said ‚I guess, this is my last holiday‘

Father
The idea to bring my father a last time to the ocean failed, because of differnt circumstances…. a bit sad, but I could accept.