"Yay! I survived __________ (fill in the day's name here)"

Yes, I've arrived at the middle of the week, and I managed to get through the office week without damage... my personal good vibes recipes are working well, including gathering and sharing positive thoughts and feelings, doing a little good karma work and even something seemingly weird and simple like walking barefoot.

Today, my bare feet produced two positive reactions on public transport on my way home after home. The first was on the quite crowded commuter bus, when at a stop a young mother with her two kids - one walking, the other in a buggy - got on at a stop near a large supermarket in the industrial area. As some passengers got out several stops before the terminus, she moved her buggy a little, then noticed my shoeless state, and wide-eyed, then smiling she exclaimed: "Hey!! You're barefoot! Wow. Cool. Why are you doing this? And for how long?" I explained my usual wellness and health reasons and told her that I have been doing this all year round for more than fifteen years now... and from spring to fall for more than 25. She was impressed and genuinely positive about it, then lifted a foot clad in a high-heeled shoe and said "Oh, you know, wearing these, I sometimes long to walk barefoot, too... but I can't..." Before we could elaborate on that, the bus reached its terminus, and we had to get off. I then went to the underground platform to board the subway/tram to get home. Two young men boarded the tram a bit later, sitting near me and one of them was quite transfixed by my bare feet, especially by the OM tattoo on my left instep. I was reading, listening to some music, so he waved one of his hands near my face to get my attention and when I removed my earphones, he asked "Are you a Hindu? For, you know, I am..." So, here was someone who actually knew the sign and meaning of it, too. He then told me that he regularly prays at the Shankarar Sri Kamadchi Ampal Hindu temple in Hamm (the largest Hindu temple in Europe, with a large annual temple festival each May... this year, it's going to be on Sunday, May 26).

I explained my mixed spirituality to him, saying that whenever I'm barefoot on Earth or grass, I am in direct spiritual contact with all creation, Nature being my temple. Of course, I also stated my wellness and health reasons, but here was someone who could and did comprehend and approve of my spiritual motives for barefooting, too.

One sad piece of news he had for me was that recently some idiot burglars broke into the temple to steal golden idols...

Nevertheless, those were very positive moments, when unwinding and relaxing after the office day...

So far, I am moving easily through the artificial world of facts and figures, like my namesake dances happily through his world.

When wanting to take a break from the spreadsheets and reports, I sometimes think about places I'd rather like to be - like sitting in a living room made for real living, being at a festival with "weird" people, feeling cool grass beneath my bare feet or being part of something this world really needs: a Free Hugs Army...

OK, that may seem like idle dreaming, but already having been in such places and with such people, it's more like taking a short trip to the past, remembering that there are places and people, where and with whom real living is indeed done, apart from what mainstream calls reality.

After all, this so-called reality is merely the product of communication about and mutual agreement on humans' perceptions. In this way of thinking, the ground I walk on is only real, since I and other human beings have perceived that ground beneath our feet, communicated about our experience and agreed upon it being there. Sounds crazy? Well, that's what sociologists think - in this special case, Niklas Luhman did. In "The Matrix!", the little buddha boy, sitting in a perfect lotus on the oracle's living room floor, explained it way simpler to Neo, when saying "There is no spoon...!"

So, with scaling the peak of the week, it's now an easy, mostly barefoot stroll downhill towards the weekend with only two more days at the office, spending my time in "reality".

Oh, one side note about that "reality"... the ugly side of it reared its head last Sunday, when a mall in the town where I live had to be evacuated due to an bomb threat, telling that two suitcases with explosives were to be deposited and set off during an antiques and flea market there... about 10,000 visitors had to be shown out of the place. To prevent mass panic, it was officially stated, that the evacuation had "technical reasons".

Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm, but it was again a reminder that there are indeed mad people in the world, claiming to have a higher reason or mission. The threat was issued via a telephone hotline installed by the German interior federal intelligence service "Bundesverfassungsschutz". Similar to a hotline, where smokers can call in to get help quitting, they have installed a telephone number for potential islamist terrorists who want to quit...

Once again, it turned out, that spreading terror is not about setting off a bomb - it's about causing fear. When people are afraid to run their normal errands or visit regular places due to a threat, the terrorist plan has worked. It interrupts and disturbs regular living, increasing fear (be it founded or not).

I, personally, am not afraid, for my having to use public transport, going shopping in supermarkets and sometimes crowded places has made me as everyone else doing this a potential target of accidents, attacks, even possible bombings... if I were afraid of that, I couldn't step out of the door every morning.

After having lived through threats like nuclear holocaust, imminent during the cold war, several major disasters in nuclear power plants and their effects on the environment as well as on people in the world, the so-called "radical left terrorism threat" boiled up by the government (which mostly targeted high-ranking political and financial officials), the uprising of a new Nazi generation in Germany (where our glorious German interior intelligence service was blind and incompetent), with racist thugs attacking anyone not befitting their so-called mindset ("so-called" beacuse I can't imagine such shit coming from brains), the islamist terrorism threat is merely just another drop of bile in the large bitter bowl of stew that our so-called "civilization" has been brewing for centuries...

No wonder, that I often think, that what "civilized" people call "primitive life" is a better choice than living the way most of us do. Instead of seeing them as poor and uncivilized, indigeous people should be left alone. And anyone who wants to go back to the roots of living, being in tune with Nature, should be able to do so (as long as there still is some Nature left!) instead of being drawn into the competitive treadmill of "modern society" at the cost of having no real world to live in anymore.

After all, living and happiness aren't about winning competitions or the thickness of our purse... there once was a Prophet (in whose name some idiots claim to act when killing others) who put it just the right way:

"Happiness does not lie in wealth but in the hearts of men." - Mohammed

I'm still hoping, that someday people will realize what is really important in life. And that hope enables me to get up in the morning, go out there and not be afraid.

Looking back on last week: surviving the monthly big number-crunching, thoughts about cats, rescuing a poor illegal chocolate bear, enjoying mild winter on bare feet...

TGIF- celebrated anywhere where people love to sing their joy out loud and dance the rhythm of their hearts into the Earth...

Yesterday was the day to again celebrate the fact, that the week had come to an end - even though it was just a short one, when work days are concerned, starting with New Year's Eve and a short shift at the office, followed by New Year's Day, which felt like a Sunday deja vu.

With Wednesday feeling like a Monday, I faced the monthly chore of again crunching numbers, turning them into monetary amounts - virtual amounts, only, on paper - and formulating the invoices to be sent to our clients. Even though I am quite at home with numbers and figures, when at work, but being responsible for large amounts of money to come into the company account, feels like turning into Uncle Scrooge, stacking his gold coins. Something, which my true self deems totally unimportant, since values in life to me are more rooted in the heart and soul rather than in my purse.

So, after finishing that day, I was feeling like "I survived Wednesday" - the second great challenge after having survived the recent "apocalypse".

At least, the mild winter weather still enables me to move around the best and most natural way outside the office - drawing up energy and gaining positive vibes from direct skin-to-skin contact with Mother Earth Herself... walking barefoot is still possible and according to weather forecasts, a frosty spell is nowhere near at the moment.

On the end of that Wednesday, I found an image on the web, which was nice to gaze at and divert my thoughts from the world of facts and figures - a psychedelic and ghostly picture of a tawny cat...

Gazing at this, my thoughts before going to sleep were circling about the best-known tawny tabbies in fiction (films and books):

Jones, the ship's cat on board the "Nostromo", who made it back to Earth with Ellen Riply in her hypersleep bed (becoming the oldest cat of his time, spending 56 years in hypersleep). I wonder what happened to him, when Ripley took off with the Colony Marines to LV 426... after all, he got left behind. Or as Ripley put it: "And you, you little shithead... you're staying here" (in "Aliens")

Spot, of course, has to be on this list, too... that cat even underwent a magical gender change, when the tomcat had kittens in one episode (SPOILER ALERT: the cat's amniotic fluid held the solution to the problem at hand...)

And, of course, Buttercup has to be on this list, too... don't mistake the black-and-white tuxedo tom from the movie for the real Buttercup Everdeen... According to Katniss, "he's a hideous-looking cat. He has a mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, and eyes the color of a rotting squash and a muddy yellow coat". This is the biased, but nevertheless acuurate description of Buttercup in Suzanne Collins' novel. But despite the mutual hated between Katniss and Buttercup (which changes considerably towards the end of the trilogy), this cat is the personal guardian of Primrose Everdeen's sleep.

Come to think of it now, I forgot to mention one very well-known fictional tawny tabby, who is the very epitome of living a comfortable life, understanding human antics and providing us with universal truth, like Mondays are there to be hated and no one should speak to him before he had his at least second cup of coffee...

Thursday marked a celebrated author's birthday, which would have called for a big feast in Hobbiton:

Alassëa nosta lyen! as the elves would have said (that's "Happy birthday to you" in Quenya). And here's the Tengwar transcript of that, too:

(as seen on http://quenya101.com/ - a nice blog about the Elvish language developed by Tolkien in his works)

Doing grocery shopping after work - barefoot, as usual - made me collect the usual bewildered looks, but also presented me with one of the poor victims of one of the stupidest lawsuits in Germany of last year.

As I already described in this blog post of mine on Dec. 19, 2012, Haribo had sued chocolate manufacturer Lindt-Sprüngli for copyright infringement, since the gold-wrapped chocolate teddy bear wearing a red ribbon was too similar in appearance to Haribo's trademark golden cartoon gummy bear with his red bowtie. And Haribo won that case, too, thus incriminating poor chocolate bears.

And on this Thursday, I found several of those chocolate bears on an after-holiday sale at a reduced price. Of course, I just had to rescue one of them, granting him asylum. No bear is illegal!

Friday went past smoothly, and although I am facing a real Saturday shift, I feel relaxed, also by the help of finding a nice M.C. Escher style mandala to gaze at, relax and unwind...

Playing the right music, such as The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" or some Ambient/Chillout tunes while looking at this, can send you somewhere else very easily...

I'm on my way now to the Sunday, the day to recharge my inner batteries with positive vibes before starting the cycle of regular weeks at work again.

Happy Nude Year!

As I already wrote in the previous post, last year (which is about as far away as two days ago), I wish all naturist and nuddhist people out there a very Happy Nude Year!

May the weather be warm enough to be naked outdoors as often as possible, to enjoy Mother Nature the best possible way and charge ourselves with her positive powers.

I'm counting the days until spring...

Happy Nude Sunday... from TGIF to HNS!

Of course, Sunday is my traditional day of recharging before a new week at work starts... this Sunday is no different, since I'm spending it mostly skyclad, taking a barefoot stroll (then clothed, mostly due to stupid social taboos) and afterwards again enjoying the freedom of being my naturally naked self, before having to enter the artificial world of the office again.

And it's also the time of the week for me to post my other kind of motivational pictures - following the "Thank Goddess, it's Friday!" series, we're now celebrating "Happy Nude Sunday!" again. From TGIF to HNS - marking the entrance into and the exit out of the weekend time, those precious days and hours, when I can tell the world, that I love being me, and that nothing will ever change that.

Fortunately, we're at the end of the year, which means, that the proper start of the week at work (with lots of things to do, like the monthly statement for December) will be no earlier than Wednesday. Monday - New Year's Eve - will feel like having a Saturday shift at the office, followed by another Sunday, before the week starts proper. It is like a weekend deja vu, rather than starting a full week at work. Funny, really, since I will start that next week with something that feels like a Saturday shift, having to work for only half a day, followed by New Year's Day, which will feel like Sunday reloaded, and I will end the week with a real Saturday shift. Those holidays can be really weird designers of weeks and schedules, sometimes.


Speaking of New Year's Day, you might wonder if I have already formulated any New Year's Resolutions... well, yes, I have formulated exactly one:

I will not formulate any New Year's Resolutions, for I don't want to change a bit about me!

I am going to travel through the year, as if I were taking a barefoot and nuddhist stroll on a colorful and interesting path - one step at a time, each day being a step, making sure to take in as much as I can of the sensations and feelings surrounding me, gathering positive vibes wherever I can, radiating the excess of good and positive energy to share it with the world at large and the loved ones dwelling in my heart.

So, you can trust in me staying the same weird, barefoot, shameless (literally) and often naked hippie person I am now. Why would want I to change what makes me and others happy?

So, have a Happy Nude Year! I know, I will...

Wolf Moon illuminates the final weekend of 2012...

"Wolf Moon" is a term used by North American natives to describe the December full moon, since it used to be the time, when hungry wolves howled at the moon in cold and long winter nights. Let's hope, that this sound will be heard in the future, too, since wolves still are an endangered species, suffering from a bad reputation (which was spawned by humans).

And just as all full moons before, it is a time to power up, gather energy and use the moon's power to rekindle the inner light.

This full moon was timed just right to spend me an extra portion of positive power, as it illuminated my way to work on the final day of my office week (even though it was a short one, interrupted by the holidays). Iwas able to capture its light on my way out in the early morning, as it was about to set, at the bus stop before entering the bus and also after exiting the bus, shining in a more industrial setting...

Even though it was shorter than usual, I still had that feeling of joy, that the week at work was coming to an end on this Friday, and also shared it with others, using my usual TGIF message...

Even though the two work days interrupted my holiday week barefooting (five days of unshod bliss), I was able to still give my bare feet their freedom before and after work, thanks to mild conditions. Even the often falling rain did not dampen my good mood, since it meant being able to enjoy the delight of splashing in puddles, refreshing myself on the start of the office day and to feel the coolness of wet pavement, cooling off after the office day on my way home...

Looking back on the holidays and a little on the past year, the event that rattled most people's mind was the interpretation of the Mayan Calendar, which many people read (or rather misread) as announcing the end of the world just around winter solstice. Actually, nowhere in the Calendar was any reference to the world ending... the real truth to be discovered was this:

All kidding aside, although Twinkies did end in 2012, the real truth behind the Mayan Calendar was nicely and truly summarized in a speech the Bolivian president Evo Morales held in front of the 67th UN general assembly in September 2012:

It would be really nice, if it turns out that way. This last year, I have tried my best to gather positive energy and spread out some of that to the people dear to me, trying to be the virtual shoulder to lean on, when needed and offering advice and help. My reward for this? Well, granted, I may have scored a few positive karma points, which might enable me to return to this world as a creature living on this Earth in the daylight, feeling Mother nature under by bare feet, paws or other appendages there might be (perhaps my whole body, if I return as an earthworm) and not being a cave-dwelling creature like a naked mole rat or an olm... although, being a naturist, naked sounds not too bad either.

The holidays themselves were a mostly lazy time for me, recharging myself and - especially on the 2nd day of Christmas, Dec. 26 - contemplating on things...

Don't worry, I wasn't drawn into depression or having suicidal thoughts in my head. I love life in general and mine in particular too much to do that... even though life has hurt my heart and soul at times, the wounds have healed over, leaving scars. And, honestly, all the things happening to me and people I met and people who have departed, have and had their purpose and function to shape me and my life as they did.

No, December 26 used to be the booster of family X-mas celebrations, being my father's birthday... that changed, as well as my personal view on X-mas, after he died on December 3, 1993, nineteen years ago. We would have celebrated his 83rd birthday this year.

Witnessing the sermon at his funeral, where a priest was prattling about "how God liked it to take him to His side", I also changed my views on church, swearing an oath never to set foot into one of those buildings again. I never again wanted to be part of a crowd, worshipping the interpretation of a creator who likes it to kill loved ones... Out of politeness and respect towards my brother's family, I broke that oath (partly), to attend my niece's and my nephew's confimation services. But I denied joining the crowd when speaking the Apostles' Creed. I do not believe in that church anymore.

So, it's not surprising, when I join in with many people believing that the holidays are merely an invention by the Christian church, establishing a fictional birthday of an enlightened being (which Jesus of Nazareth was, undoubtedly) in order to subdue the pagan faith in winter solstice as a feast of light in the cold season. What I still share with other people is believing in these days being a celebration of familial love - although my view of family extends the boundaries of lineage and blood relation.

So, I can safely say, that despite my less than usual sentiments about X-mas and the holidays, I had a nice time. Although, my gift, which I have chosen to present myself with (a new Mala, since my old one broke, two new cloths to make into a sarong, a fluffy blanket and a new supply of Nag Champa incense), will arrive after the X-mas holidays. Well, sometimes even Santa can be delayed, due to circumstance beyond his control...

Now, it's time to look ahead and hope for a happy new year 2013... although, there are dark clouds on the horizon... recently, a first sign of this world changing has emerged... and it can be spotted very easily, too. The future looks grumpy...

Happy nudist holidays

Yes, indeed, nudists celebrate X-mas, too...

Happy holidays and a happy nude year!

Powering up on a mild Sunday...

On the last Advent Sunday, one day before X-mas eve, temperatures rose up to almost spring levels, with 13°C (55F). Not going out and taking a barefoot stroll would have been a total waste of this mild weather. I chose to wear a sarong and a warm fleece hoodie as my barefooting outfit. Even though it was raining slightly, I did not feel cold and at one point even a shower came down, which I used in the best way possible - taking a rain bath.

Yes, I was indeed so daring as to make part of my barefoot stroll a nude one, too... it was mild enough for my taste to stay skyclad for almost half an hour.

Before doing so, I was enjoying the different textures, puddles, mud and the soft, wet skin of Mother Earth when walking on bare soil.

When coming to a favourite place of mine in the park, the three alders, reminding me of the threefold Goddess (Maiden, Mother and Crone), I saw that the park was deserted, and I felt that this was now the time to pay this Mother Nature monument a visit - barefoot and naked, powering up, doing a breath meditation at the center of the three trees, feeling the soft soil underfoot, while a gentle breeze blew a slight drizzle onto my body.

After finishing my gathering of positive energy, I saw that I was still alone, and so I decided to stay nude. The air was still feeling nice and mild, and the drizzle now started to increase, becoming a shower, which I used to take a rain bath - one of the most wonderful things to enjoy when being naked outdoors...

The falling rain did affect the camera, so that capturing that moment was clad in mist. As soon as the shower was over, I walked on, still enjoying the freedom of natural nudity. When I began feeling a little cold, I gradually put on my clothes again, starting with my sarong, then putting on my hoodie, before zipping it up again, returning to the barefooter appearance from the beginning of my barefoot stroll.

Funny, really, that it's only been two weeks since I have been barefoot in ankle-deep snow and now had the chance to be skyclad on a barefoot Sunday stroll... Sometimes X-mas wonders can be as simple things as mild days.