A Beggar's Bowl

Berlin is a big, big fridge: Siberian temperatures, minus 17°C at night and icy east wind. 

But Yours Truly stepped outside (well: my pedometer forced me). My aim was the Castle Charlottenburger Schloss, to look at a special painting of Freddy’s father (The Horrible).

Well – I abandoned the plan, though I could already see the castle at the end of a long, long alley. But the frost was biting into my nose and fingers, and  a stilled thirst for knowledge is not worth a ruined complexion. Down these mean streets a man must go, but as a woman I sneaked into a little backstreet, where I had once passed the shop window of a goldsmith.

And there I found it: my Beggar’s Bowl.

“There’s nothing like going out in style”, my late father sometimes remarked ironically when he thought I overdid something. So: I do know that this is a very posh Beggar’s Bowl.

But the intention why I bought it is pure.

First: it shall remind me that a day gives us so many presents – and I want to have and keep a grateful heart. It is so easy to overlook all the goodness a day puts into our bowl. I had a warm bed tonight. I had a wonderful breakfast this morning (really strong hot tea, an egg, porridge with real blueberries, half a grapefruit) – shelter and food, I am thankful for that.

And the bowl shall remind me of something else:

As I told you before, I am a person with a very vivid imagination. I read the complete “Pamela” (in English) with 15. I read Colette – my absolute favourite (my parents forbid me to read it – too young, they said – an excellent way to create an ardent reader).

Result: I am great in picturing to myself how an experience will be in future.

And this is not a clever way to live.

The bowl shall remind me:

Life/the Tao/God is putting the events and surprises into my bowl – and I shall take them as they come. Without rating “This is good” and “This is bad”.

Difficult for me. Very. But I try. And learn. Sometimes.

(Now comes a bit of stream of consciousness for you. “The bowl is beautiful – but these are definitely not my colours. I love pink, I have a problem with orange and lime green”, I thought. My Inner Voice talked back: “But it is beautiful! If you always walk on ways you always walk – that will become boring!”)

The Goldsmith wrapped it up. In (beautiful) orange crepe paper. (“But I..” Oh, shut up!” said my Inner Voice). And just as if to mock at me the goldsmith put a pink ribbon around it. (“Pink and Orange don’t harmon…” SHUT UP!”) 

I gave in to my Better Self (and even put that present on a lime green bench to take a photograph of it, I told you I exaggerate sometimes) 

“Have you already seen the Lietzensee?” asked the goldsmith. “No.” “If you go to the left on your way back to the underground, you’ll pass it by: a little park with a pond – and a beautiful atmosphere.”

“That’s good”, I thought. (I know!)

And went.

And it was a marvellous surprise!

A present in my bowl.

I'm Grateful for Role Models!

(Joanna Lumley)

I found a wonderful blog: "Advanced Style"  http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/  which I want to share with you.
I see on many blogs that women of a certain age have problems with their concept of self when they get older.
Of course nobody is utterly thrilled when looking into the mirror in that awful sunlight in March, only to find that the neck is suddenly covered with tiny little wrinkles -
(By the way: here I can offer you three solutions:
1. I always carry a very little creme pot with me and put on a tiny dot every four hours - that's as long as the 'pump up' effect works
2. I sometimes wear a beautiful scarf (something I hated before, because it makes me nervous, even if Hermés or Bulgari is written on it)
3. I read Nora Ephrim's hilarious book "I feel bad about my neck", laugh and don't mind so much)
Not for me the "I-promise-you-the-fountain-of-youth"-creme for 600 Euro - I use Nivea, keep fit, brush my skin, eat not too big portions - and do all the things recommended in the wonderful book: "Look Younger - Live Longer" by Gayelord Hauser - and believe me: there is nothing new under the sun: he wrote it in 1950!
20 - 30% of the way you get older is predetermined by your genes. Of course it is a huge privilege when you had not to do too much physically hard work, have a good health (and care for it) and serenity, have never been made redundant, have a harmonious partnership and be grateful for all that.
Beside these aforementioned important things there are other secrets for staying young, (because I know a lot of women in the same social conditions who don't):
- Be curious about Life (Think: "He who lives for himself alone lives for the meanest mortal known")
- Be interesting
- Laugh (and cry)
- Be sexy (I mean the feeling - not the outward appearance - and believe me: one can tell the difference!)
- Wear colours (Yes! You can! Don't let Bobbi Brown tell you you should wear beige, brown and pastel)
- Don't stay too much in a rut or on the safe side - be bold and daring, you are as important as anybody else
- Love young people, love old people, love life - and tell people about it!
- Be grateful and forgiving
- Love!
And don't fix on your wrinkles or your age on the passport - I compare it to being 16: you thought the whole world would look at a pimple (though people had other things to care for - preferably themselves) -and  now we seem to change that fixation for the belief that everybody notices our wrinkles or muffin top...
My photographs on facebook.com/britta.huegel (except one) are not older than a year.

                                                             

No Botox, no surgery, turning silver slowly and loving it - though good illumination definitely is welcome :-)
Role models I had even when I was very young: Colette, Elisabeth Flickenschildt, Ninon de Lenclos, to name a few.
So I am utterly happy to discover that there are many, many more around:
just cast a glance at http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/ !!