25 days till Christmas. Can you believe it? I say that every year, don’t I? I have a feeling it creeps up just a tad bit earlier each year. Not that I am unprepared but somehow I manage to block out all signs of Christmas, of which they first begin to appear at the markets as early as September.
The trees have shed their leaves and a thick carpet in hues of burgundy red, rust orange and apple-yellows lie under my feet. They crinkle beneath my battered running shoes as I run along the gravel path towards the stream, shimmering in the early morning sun rays. Taking a seat on the park bench, the air tingles crisply on my cheeks and I can smell the snow in the far distance. Not long now and the landscape will change colors again.
I’ve led a life of a gypsy for a large part of my years. Together with my family, our wanderlust took us from Cairo to Bali, from Colombo to Kuwait from Houston to Zanzibar. These kilometers were covered before I even turned eleven. Just as I began unpacking my Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl books and found the perfect place for my posters, it was time to cram them into the aluminum and wooden chests again, which we had especially made for our travels.
In a current school project, my son’s class is discussing dreams, wishes, ambitions and aspirations. Soeren with his 9 years old is very focused and pretty much knows where he wants to go in life. Although he might take up a totally different path and end up doing something completely different to what he dreams of now, what strikes me as impressive is that he has been able to find all the right resources he needs to pave his way for his ultimate goal.
Getting a group of people under one roof for an entire weekend can be a tricky, if not an intricate matter. The dynamics need to be just right; the energy has to flow in all the positive directions and the synergy between the group must be cohesive and interactive. It’s difficult to get all the processes right in one group, usually a good amount of work is involved beforehand to bind each individual into forming a harmonious group.
