London in October 2015

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Odalisca by Theodor Aman

A beautiful painting I had the chance to see at Museum’s Night in Ploiesti.

Happy anniversary!

1 year anniversary

Keeping your friends close vs living like a nomad

Being on the road always brought an inner joy to my spirit. However, as any good thing in life, traveling also had a downside which for people like me translated into leaving dear friends behind, while moving to the next place. Sometimes I feel my nomad nature kept me away from having a serious relationship or perhaps I chose this gypsy life because I was too afraid to plant real roots in one particular place. In my own twisted dictionary “nesting” meant giving up on seeing the rest of this world, so I tried to stay away from any form of attachment to a location or country.

Anyway, this non attachment brought me a lot of alone time and solitude. Some people, have no issue with being left by themselves long periods of time, sadly I am not like that.

Today was one of those days where my best buddy was my shadow. It was Sunday, so to cheer myself up I went for some Chinese noddles and ended up in a modern art gallery. All in all it was a decent time considering it didn’t stop raining and the grey city center was empty as everybody was trying to get some shelter.

Thanks to skype or facebook chatting with my dearest friends has become a weekend tradition, however I still miss hugging them or just being there in the same room, sharing some tea or coffee together. Let’s hope this blue state of mind will not torment me next week also.

Peace be with you,

C.

“who can say where the day flows…”

I’m listening to “Only time” from Enya and I pure and simple love those lyrics. Time is for me also the best barometer. By allowing things to happen in your life and by taking each day as it comes to you, things evolve and you move on with the flow of life.

These days I’ve been busy trying to settle myself in a new country and doing my best to find a host here. It’s been a long journey which started a few days before Christmas and now it’s about to normalize again. Hopefully tomorrow I will find the perfect host for me and on Monday I will be able to start my new job here in Bratislava.

“Follow your b…

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”

Joseph Campbell

the magpie and me

Today, after exchanging ideas with a friend about what love is and how to keep your emotional balance under surveillance in critical moments I reached a point where I relinquished my preconceptions and established to let go of false patterns. What I mean by that is: I recognized my past mistakes and felt relieved to know there isn’t something I needed to change…except for my thoughts. 🙂

In romantic relationship, as well as in business the best policy is to let things flow naturally…somehow I needed to hear that today. Actually, it was just a reminder; however I’m grateful my friend stood there and whispered those words of wisdom into my ears.
Thank you A, you reached me just in time.

Afterwards feeling a bit blue and nostalgic I looked outside my window at a tiny magpie, which was resting on a branch alone.

Now the delicate part comes…maybe it was the conversation or perhaps it was the lonely bird, but I couldn’t hold my tears back…If you (dear reader) knew me, you would have acknowledged that I’m not a cry baby nor do I like to show my weak sides…but that’s what happened. I had a disturbing thought while watching the magpie: “what if I will end up alone…just like that jay?” or “what if the only thing which lead me to this point was… my nature?” Hmmm…

Well, while I was trying to collect myself something amazing happened…the magpie flew from that place to the roof of a house where another jay was reposing. I don’t know about you guys, but to me that was a sign. A lucky omen. In China, the magpie is also called “the bird of joy”, plus they believe jays bring good fortune. Below are 3 links I discovered on that subject:

Symbolic Magpie Meanings

Chinese Animal Symbols

http://susanwong.hubpages.com/hub/feng-shui-butterfly-and-magpie-symbolism-and-meaning

Thanks to nature and those 2 birds my mood switched and I recognized that dwelling on a negative idea won’t do me any good. Grazie a Dio. 🙂

Connecting to the present moment brings you short glimpses of satisfaction.

I’m saying that because after 2 weeks of daily, almost religious meditation with Deepak Chopra, I’ve reached a point where those words are not only a statement-> to me those words are true.

This week I was on a business trip and while flying to my destination I’ve met a French business man. Let me paint you the picture: I don’t speak French, but considering it’s a Latin language I do know some basic phrases and greetings. Usually, when I go abroad I speak English, Italian or even German, in some circumstances.

As English is the universal language almost everywhere in Europe, except for a few places where they prefer Russian, I assumed that the man sitting next to me was familiar with the English idiom. Guess what? He wasn’t.
Feeling uncomfortable after realizing the passenger wasn’t able to understand me, I tried to fix the situation by asking what language could he speak. His polite reply was: “français”. (French)

Smiling and trying to show a friendly face (while feeling a bit embarrassed) I carried a short conversation with this gentleman and felt surprisingly good about my own knowledge of French vocabulary. I mean, when faced with an unprecedented and unexpected situation like that one…somehow I raised to the challenge.
…
Anyway, that’s not the end of the story.

The second day, on my flight back the same guy was among the group of people who were boarding the plane. He saw me, smiled and said “hello”, in French of course 🙂 …thus, I guess feeling awkward for a bit, but pushing through that and making the effort to connect with people… who were there near me (at some point in time), made the difference between a normal/boring flight and an unusual, yet interesting one.

The conclusion could be: “what you put out into the world comes back to you.” In my case…there was a smile…in yours can be something completely different. Just try to be present as much as you can and life will surprise you.

PS: My attempt to start that conversation was triggered by empathy, I noticed how scared the passenger was of flying and I just tried to distract him from that sensation…

TECHO

TECHO

Thanks to DW (Deutsche Welle) I discovered by chance this NGO active in Latin America called TECHO.(techo=”roof” in English) If you are living on that continent and would like to find out more about this organization go to this page: http://www.techo.org

People who joined the TECHO community need your support. Some of you might donate money, others your time…the important thing is to engage in projects like that. To me that’s what makes a difference between what is now…and what can be tomorrow.

I love Canada…and Canada loves me

I’m sending a warm thank you to all my readers from this country. You guys are the best! Please share the posts you liked with your friends and comment on the things which inspired you the most…