Samhain Blessings!

Let's not forget the true roots of this day, which has been converted into a pumpkin horror fest by puritan so-called Christians, who used to torture and kill women in 17th century North America:

A Merry Samhain and Happy New Year to all believers in the ways of the Goddess!

"Tits for Human Rights"

(picture by dpa)

At the Pariser Platz in Berlin, right at the Brandenburg Gate 25 refugees are holding a hunger strike (for a week now) to protest against residential obligation (having to stay in one city, without freedom of travelling within Germany) and to achieve a ban on deporting. The last hassle by the Berlin police was to take away sleeping bags and blankets from the refugees camping there.

As a support action, female members of the Pirate Party Berlin announced, that they would hold a protest by undressing at the camp site and called their project "tits for human rights".

On a sunny but frosty cold Monday afternoon they assembled, meeting the press (including, of course the infamous German yellow press) and several TV news teams. And as they began undressing, they unveiled t-shirts reading slogans like "Human Rights - Not Tits!" And it became clear that, of course, they never meant to get naked or topless there... they unmasked the real press interest, though.

Calling out "Sex Sells. Human rights are not for sale" the protesters got their point across. And, at least, the journalists who were put to shame talked to the refugess first, before turning to the women.

Laura Dornheim, Pirate Party representative for gender affairs, was offered to appear on page one of the German tabloid "Bild", if she did show her tits. That's what the so-called "journalist" offered her... great job in confirming the reputation of "Bild": that it's mainly blood and shit printed on cheap paper.

Here's a link to the German newspaper "taz" featuring the creative protest:

http://www.taz.de/Piratinnen-fuehren-Medien-vor/!104503/

Enjoying the First October Morning Frost...

The forecasts have been right about mornings becoming cooler... with a cloudless sky, temperatures dropped just below frost level, and a slight breeze blew -1°C / 30°F air in from the north.

After the end of the office week, I want to bed early yesterday night (but not without enjoying one of the DVDs I bought before... Iron Sky is out on DVD and Blu-Ray since yesterday!). Waking up this morning, around 7.30 am, I opened the window to see stars twinkling above and to get a first feeling of the crisp morning air.

I fixed myself a mug of strong and sweet black coffee, then went out onto my balcony - skyclad, as usual - and did a breathing meditation, deeply inhaling the cool morning air, feeling my sinuses clear up, exhaling and watching my breath trail off in wisps of steam. The frosty air felt like Mother Nature wrapping me in a cold veil. Gazing to the south-east, I saw Venus shining brightly just before sunrise. After about five minutes, I felt relaxed as well as invigorated and went back into my apartment to get the coffee, stepping out again, still naked, and feeling the mocha brew warming me up from inside, while feeling my skin tingle slightly, as the slight cold breeze wafted over my skin.

Morning Nuddhism on my balcony might be becoming more challenging, with temperatures dropping, but I still feel it to be the best way to greet the day: feeling the morning air on my nude body, while I power up and relax at the same time, doing a breath meditation, followed by a mug of coffee.

Living a barefoot and naturist life, always nude at home, including my personal spirituality into it, is an expression of being truly me. Some people might say, it's a quirk, or just weird, or that I'm ugly and shouldn't dare showing myself that way... Quite frankly, I take strength from such comments, since there are other people who share my love for living the most natural way and support me.


And I'm happy to know, that I'm not alone doing so... Blessings and greetings to all kindred spirits, joining me in greeting the day the most natural and comfiest way.

Indian Summer Days - Part 3

Of course, with warm temperatures forecast for Sunday, too, I just had to conclude the Indian Summer Days series with a walk in the park... although, I started the day very early, since I wanted to see, whether I could spot any of the predicted shooting stars zooming over the south-eastern sky with the Orionids meteor shower being at its peak at 5 am in my timezone... but, alas, Mother Nature had decided to wear a thin veil of haze, obscuring the view onto the stars. The mild temperatures, though, enabled me to enjoy my time, doing a nuddhist breathing meditation, followed by having a nude mug of double-sweet, strong coffee (mocha blend), feeling a mild breeze on my skin. Later, I watched the veil of thin clouds being lit up just before sunrise...

In the afternoon, I put on some summerly clothing, since a sunny day with scattered clouds and 23°C (73F) don't call for typical autumn clothing, and directed my barefoot steps to my favourite park, looking forward to seeing the trees and bushes lit up in the sunlight, while wearing their Indian Summer Sunday best... I already saw some impressive colors in the trees on the way there (and, yes, that's a photovoltaic array on that roof... this homeowner had a good sunny time today, too).

On entering the park, I walked around on the grass, the paths, feeling and enjoying the different sensations of the sand, dry and soft grass, wet and cool grass, soft soil, and the crunchy feeling of fallen leaves underfoot, while taking in the colors and mood of the late afternoon sun, which clad the park in a golden light...

The only thing reminding me of the seasons was the fact, that around 6 pm the sun was about to set... the temperatures still felt of a summer day, though.

And since I already described the different textures and surfaces I enjoyed feeling beneath my bare soles, here's my little collection of Indian Summer Sunday barefooting pictures:

As far as warm Sundays are concerned, weather forecasts are telling me, that today was the last one... temperatures are predicted to drop as low as frost level by next Sunday, as can be seen on this forecast chart for my area:

The temperatures given here are in centigrade, and the light blue horizontal line marks frost level. Minimum temperatures are forecast to be at or slightly below frost level at 2 meters... the ground will be cooler, which will make it likely for my bare toes to have frost nibbling on them before Halloween... Maybe next Sunday, I can post pictures of my bare feet touching rime on grass...

But before that happens, I'll make sure to enjoy every mild moment I can by having as much skin-to-skin contact with Mother Earth by means of my bare feet.

Indian Summer Days - Part 2

I'm still experiencing the effects of Mother Nature's warm breath blown over my part of the world... October 20, early morning (well, around 8.30 am is rather early for a Saturday!), and temperatures are as high as 18°C (almost 65F)... such conditions were just perfect for my nuddhist morning exercise on the balcony, once again enjoying the feeling of a mild breeze on my skin while doing a breathing meditation, followed by having a mug of strong and sweet coffee (mocha blend) in the nude, as well as for choosing a summerly outfit for going to work a barefoot office shift on this Saturday. I did once again regret to live in a "civilized" society, where the best choice of comfortable clothing - no clothes at all - is frowned upon as being "indecent", "improper" or even "lewd" instead of being perceived as what it is: natural and comfortable. Oh well, such is life with stupid social taboos...

Even though October 20 was to be "Unplug from The Matrix! Day", I had to spend some time inside The Matrix!, known as the office world, since many people there have fallen ill from severe cold or flu symptoms, leaving the rest of us with more work to do and therefore raising the demand for overtime... even the project and team admin (that is: me) is not safe from that.

("Unplug from The Matrix! Day" theme pictures shared by Sacred Geometry & The Flower of Life on http://www.facebook.com/sacredgeo  )

Still, I wanted to be myself and show it as much as possible and therefore dressed in my favourite sarong and a black t-shirt with my namesake printed on it. Needless to say, I was barefoot.

Getting out to the tram stop, I saw a nice suburban morning sun peeking through from under hazy clouds, promising a nice and warm day to come. The paved sidewalks and the waiting area at the tram stop felt nice underfoot, since they hadn't cooled much overnight...

Due to rail repair works over the weekend, the tram wasn't running, though, and so a bus, as its replacement, pulled up to the stop and I entered, receiving the usual double takes from the driver and the few passengers there were on this early Saturday morning... this time, the looks were aimed at my outfit choice as well as at my bare feet. On changing at the central station underground bus stop (it's in a tunnel underneath the station building), I went upstairs, getting a few snacks for the office day, had a smoke outside the building (yeah, I know... it's still an unhealthy habit!), received more looks and double-takes and then went back down into the bus stop tunnel to take the relay to the area, where the office is located. And approaching the point, where I wanted to wait, I witnessed once again the stupidity of some people, when it comes to drinking behaviour...

I don't mind having a beer now and then. Not at all... on the contrary, I like having one or a few occasionally, too. But: beer is sold in deposit bottles over here... smashing them is not only bad behaviour (environmentally unsound, too), it's a waste of money. Lots of people litter and pay no attention to what they leave behind. But most often, they refrain from it, when doing so would affect their wallets, be it by being fined for littering or losing deposit and return money. Of course, the idiot smashing that bottle thought last about people who might be walking barefoot... but obviously, he (I'm quite sure it was a male) also had switched off his brain as far as environmental and financial reasons for not littering were concerned.

Oh, well, one of those pet peeves in the life of a barefooter...

However, I didn't let that get to me for too long, but went on my way, enjoying the sidewalks, patches of grass here and there and the warmth of an Indian Summer morning on my way to work, while the morning sun lit up the grass I was walking on, making me a happy barefooter, despite having to work...

As far as weather conditions are concerned, the days to come can just stay that way...

Shame on you, Frau Merkel!

Ms. Merkel doesn't want to protect the lives of these children... money comes first!

I'm sorry, kids! Our ruling parties in the German federal government are putting money before human rights... even affecting the lives of indigenous people in your place, Rio Xingu.

Another reason to feel ashamed of my country's federal government: last week, the currently ruling conservative and liberal-democratic party denied the ratification of the international ILO convention no. 169, which has been formulated to strengthen the rights of indigenous people world-wide.

It is a legally binding international instrument, formulated as early as 1989, coming into effect in 1991. So far, just 20 countries (most of them in South America) have ratified this convention.
The ILO 169 convention can be read here:
http://www.ilo.org/indigenous/Conventions/no169/lang--en/index.htm

A spokeswoman of the German conservative party (which is bold enough to call itself "christian-democratic union", although they very often decree quite unchristian as well as undemocratic things...) justified the denial of ratification as follows: ratifying this convention would put the burden of liabilities onto German corporations, which could be detrimental to investments in developing countries. Well, yes, it would be - but shouldn't human rights come first?

One large German company which would be in danger of losing money is Siemens, part of the Voith Hydro conglomerate, currently the main investor of the Belo Monte Dam project.

Indian Summer Days - part 1

This morning, it felt like Mother Nature blew her warm breath over my part of the world... During my nuddhist morning exercise, breathing in the fresh air of the early day, sipping on my coffee, I felt a mild breeze wafting over my skin. The temperature was 16C/61F. It seems, the forecasts were right. And the next days are predicted to be mild and mostly fair as well...

The day started off with another fabulous sky and cloud painting, as remaining clouds and haze from the previous day's rain were wandering eastward, making way for the sun to come out and making me appear like illumination hit me once again at the office.

During the day, temperatures rose to 21°C (almost 70F) in the shade, nicely warming up the sidewalks and sunlit patches of grass... of course, I took my time on the way home, enjoying different textures and also the fallen leaves, feeling nicely warm and crunchy underfoot and also serving as a blanket, when I played a little barefoot hide-and-seek in them.

Although the day had been dry and sunny, I found the one spot on my way to the bus stop, where a puddle from the day before remained... it's one of those spots, which is not very well lit up by the sun, and therefore slightly cooler, slowing down evaporation. Of course, where there's a puddle, my bare feet have to go in and then leave my trademark tracks on dry pavement, too.

On the bus ride home, I saw someone who was either just a doppelgänger or the reincarnation of the late James Doohan... the similarity was really striking.

Well, with Scotty on the bus, we were safe from mechanical failures, I'm sure.

Well, I'm curious what the next days might bring... weather-wise, it will be perfect for barefooting. If I weren't working in an office, but still living my life in our communal trailer park, I'd observe the hippie casual friday dress code:

If the weather stays that warm, I might observe that dress code outdoors on the weekend, too... unfortunately, stupid social demands and "civilized" society's artificial shame and hangups keep me from doing so at work. Pity, really.

One weekend event to look forward to is the Orionids meteor shower, which is scheduled to reach its peak on early Sunday morning (4 am UTC, which is 5 am in my timezone). I am hoping for a clear morning, so that I can watch it. The meteors are forecast to originate right from Orion's belt. Orion is currently standing due south in the zenith at that time... I see the celestial hunter standing there in the morning, when having my nude coffee on the balcony. And I will certainly enjoy the feeling of mild air on my naked skin, when having that coffee on an early Sunday morning, too... let's pray for clear skies.