philosophy Archives - follow your wild heart

floating with the river…

Last week I was embarking on a new journey full of challenges and new experiences.

I was offered to join a small group of people to go on a 3 day, 3 night adventure with the canoe into the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It was organized and facilitated by the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, so the main goal was a full immersion into the land and to learn and experience to use simple (some would say primitive) tools and techniques to help to get really connected with the natural world around you.

we are starting…

When we started, my feelings were a mix of excitement, curiosity and fear, which is a mix I know all to well, since most of my adventures start off like that. The only difference might be the intensity of one feeling over another. read more

food for your thoughts

Climate change is a very talked about subject. What can we do? What should we stop doing? Many people have all kinds of lists as an answer to “stop” or rather slow down the process. But almost everyone thinks that humans can and have to do this alone, because we’re the most intelligent (and maybe also because we caused most of it). I want to share two videos that show in a simple way, that the intelligence of the brain might not be relevant in helping the cause, that it might even be counterproductive: read more

It’s party time!

As I mentioned in my last entry , I finished my tiny house mostly because I set myself a deadline. Aside from the final result, this really shows how good I work with a deadline and a little pressure ;-). And it wasn’t just a random deadline.. It was the date of my (tiny) house warming party!

Over the years I spent some time with project lifecycles and especially systems like the one in Dragon Dreaming and the natural cycles of the medicine wheel resonated with me. Within Dragon Dreaming, there are four recurring phases in the cycle: read more

One of those days/weeks/months…

Have you ever had a time in your life where it felt almost impossible to sit at the computer one more second than absolutely necessary?

Home is where my heart is

I’ve been asking myself: When does a house become a home? – Well, I found the answer in an old folk song (probably from the Natives of North America, but I never verified it):

I’ve been travelling a day,
I’ve been travelling a year,
I’ve been travelling a lifetime,
to find my way home.

Home, is where my heart is
Home, is where my heart is
Home, is where my heart is,
My heart is my home.

My heart IS my home, but since I put so much of my heart into my little house, it is now also part of my home. My home also includes people I call family and dear friends, so I’ll probably never be truly homeless, but since I moved in, I do feel like I’ve come home. Being in my tiny house feels like a warm hug by a loved one. Not perfect by outside standards, but perfect in my eyes, including all its imperfections. read more

connecting the dots

A while ago a friend of mine told me about an interesting method of raising children that was developed by the Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikler. One of the main principles is to not “help” the child to get into positions or places that it couldn’t reach on its own. So for example if you put a baby in a sitting position before it can get there on its own, it will feel insecure and won’t know how to get out of that position and probably experience stress. But if you find the patience to wait until it gets there on its own, it will be much more stable and also feel pride to have accepted the challenge and succeeded. read more

Every day holds the potential for MAGIC

Magic … like a big and potentially energy-consuming meeting being postponed out of the blue on a day where you feel like you couldn’t have handled it.

Magic … like someone smiling at you when you were so much inside your head, you only saw problems and sorrow.

Magic … like a majestic owl diving soundlessly for its prey right in front of you.

Magic … like one of your favorite musicians playing exactly the songs you were hoping to hear at his amazing concert.

Magic … like a really good friend just being here and listening to whatever you need to talk about – however dumb you might feel it sounds. read more

lessons and new adventures

My last blog post about the potential transformational power of traveling was mostly inspired by two trips I took recently. Very different, and yet very similar at the same time.

One included a visit to a couple living in a tiny house in the middle of nowhere, completely off the grid. No electricity, no gas, no running water. Watching them interact with each other and their surroundings. And getting a small taste of how it could feel to have a life where everything you do is in direct response to ones needs for living and surviving. read more

Going away…

Travel can be so much more than a break from daily life. When we move beyond sightseeing and open ourselves to people, cultures, and the living spirit of a place, travel becomes a mirror — revealing who we are and how we see the world. In this reflection lies transformation, awareness, and the quiet joy of truly connecting — both with others and with ourselves.

my theme: trial and error

As you might have noticed, I changed the theme of my blog, just to try out how you (and I) like it.

But not just the blog theme and design is a game of trial and error for me. everything I do in my life at the moment seems to follow this theme. It’s not always easy to follow this direction though, since it does take a lot of time and effort to try out new things. Also the level of motivation drops when some kind of error occurs. I’m slowly getting used to the process though, and so stumbling and falling down isn’t such a big deal any more. At least most of the time. read more

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