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This weekend: Calming, grounding, inspiring

Sunday morning walk (Foto: Carmen Radeck)

This weekend was particularly calming, grounding and inspiring.

Calming and grounding: Long walks in the morning and late afternoon with my partner and our dog in places we don’t often walk.

Grounding: We watched „Nomadland“ for the first time on Saturday. After watching the film, I felt a bit anxious, especially thinking about getting older and being alone.

Interestingly, this (Sunday) morning I read a quote by Gabor Maté:

„Safety is not a question of a lack of threat. Safety is the presence of connection.“

Gabor Maté

This let me think of my anxiety the night before. And of the importance of community and connection for the „nomads“ in the film and for people in general.

Aside from the anxiety, the film was grounding for me as it shows life stripped to the bone. It makes you think about the essential things in life and made me feel grateful for the life I have.

Inspiring: I love my weekend feed on my favourite feed reader „Feedly“. The Marginalian newsletter was particularly inspiring again with an article about evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis and her book „Symbiotic Planet“.

Also inspiring was the BBC World Book Club podcast episode with Jennifer Egan about her book „A visit from the Goon Squad“, which I am currently re-reading. One of my favourite books ever.

The „Knowledge“ section in the German weekly newspaper „Die Zeit“ was also very inspiring, especially an article about the philosopher Rosi Braidotti and the concept of the posthuman. I was impressed by the idea of affirmative ethics. Interestingly, one of her quotes is „We are all nomads“.

I immediately ordered two books by her to dive deeper into the idea of the posthuman. There will also be an exhibition on this topic at Marta Herford Museum in June.

Walking when the sun goes down

Foto: Carmen Radeck

I love the mood and atmosphere of a walk between afternoon and evening right before the sun goes down.

It’s such a quieting feeling with the promise of coming home and rest.

Eight years of morning walks: Happy Birthday Cooper!

Foto: Carmen Radeck

This is our dog Cooper. Today is his 8th birthday.

As he is my first dog, these eight years also mean eight years of morning walks almost every day for me. Hundreds of sunrises and even more grey skies.

Morning walks have become one of my daily rituals that I don’t want to miss. No matter what the weather’s like.

Today’s morning walk was full of these moments I love about morning walks. Wonderful views, a happy dog and lovely encounters with other morning walkers.

I didn’t expect that walking the dog would not only connect me with nature or the nearer surroundings, but also with people. Especially with those who also have dogs.

On most days this means a friendly hello, sometimes the latest local news, and on very special days, maybe when it’s raining so hard that no one is out but those with dogs, a deep conversation about what really matters in life.