an Upupa came into my Qi field today

Today when I was lying in my hammock under the trees in the green garden I thought: It would be wonderful to see an upupa (hoopoe)..
last time must have been at least one year ago, by the time my father was visiting.

Then I opened my book and thought no further about it.

One hour later I can see a bird coming on to the center of the lawn, behind a flowerpot. I could not believe my eyes when I saw what kind of bird it was - an upupa!
Amazed by the power of thought, I laid comfortably in my hammock just looking at it, marveled.
I wondered what he was coming to say to me this time?
Or was he just, like me, staring at me enjoying my relaxing energy - qi - field?
I know that each and every one of us has a qi-field which goes up to twenty meters (if you are a qi gong master it can reach up to 200 meters). The upupa was standing only fifteen meters away.
I believe he was sucking up my qi, while staring at me all the time.
Or, to tell the truth, we were sucking up each others qi. And we were sucking diesel.

If one is sensitive enough to read the signs of life and to feel the messages coming, then birds can be really powerful. For me different birds have had different meanings through time. Pelicans riding the Mexican waves of the Pacifics have come to mean beauty and harmony. Owls are for me pure transformation and inner wisdom. Upupas stand for royalty and spirituality.
(see an earlier blog post of mine for full description)

What more could be the meaning of birds?

A friend of mine, a film maker, told me his story with birds. When his mother died and he returned home after the funeral, he was met by two eagles circulating above his house for a long time.
He stood there wondering, and tears came down from his cheeks. Now he knew in his heart, his mother was, and would always, watch over him.

When my father was attending my grandfather´s funeral he could hear the song of a bird coming from a branch in the tree. When he turned around he could see the Pyrrhula pyrrhula (bullfinch) sitting there with his big red breast shining midst the green lush. His thought was not logical, it was instant - and therefore more real. His heart whispered to him: there is your father giving you a red card. In fact, my grand-father used to be a soccer judge.

A few years after the funeral, I was sitting in the olive grow, when a white dough came up to me. It landed just within reach for me to touch it if I wanted. But I didn´t, I was listening to it.
My head was empty, without any thought - I was touched by what I felt. I felt my grand-father was
sitting next to me. It was his soul in that little body. And now he came back to what he had dreamed of. Once he came to visit on the hill where I live on. On that occasion he held a speech in front of my Italian family. I had to translate everything into Italian. He said "I would be really happy to come here to work for you giving a helping hand with the olive trees".
Who would suite better with olive branches than a white dough?

Those stories are all birds connected with death. Many people are being reincarnated into birds, this is my full conviction.
However, the long visit I received today was connected with life. In which way I must figure out, but I could just sense it.

I wonder if the upupa was standing there just like my horse use to: with one leg bent in a position of rest. When I let her down in the garden, there is a wide area to grass on. After a short while she gets tired of eating, then she would stand next to me, touching the hammock with her big smooth mouth. She finds it comforting to sleep next to me.
She feels my protecting, calm qi-field. And she knows that within twenty cm it is very strong. I believe she doesn´t know these numbers, but I truly believe she doesn´t need them, cause she just needs to sense it.

la cura: embracing the wonders of life

Ti proteggeró dalle paure delle ipocontrie, dai turbamenti che da oggi incontrerai per la tua via. 

Dalle ingiustizie e dagli inganni del tuo tempo, dai fallimenti che per tua natura normalmente attirerai. Ti solleverò dai dolori e dai tuoi sbalzi d'umore,
dalle ossessioni delle tue manie. Supererò le correnti gravitazionali, lo spazio e la luce per non farti invecchiare.
E guarirai da tutte le malattie, perché sei un essere speciale, ed io, avrò cura di te.

Today was the funeral of a grand man, Mr Nelson Mandela. Just as the elephant herd did in South Africa with Lawrence Anthony, a whole world is mourning in unison. Not only are we greaving the person Nelson Mandela, but also the values he embodied. He was willing to sacrifice his own life for the love and care he felt for his people. Even though Mandiba is not here anymore, physically, I strongly believe the principles he stood for will continue living. There might not ever be a man as courageous, as patient and as revolutionary as him. But we need to keep the memory of him alive for future generations. He must never be forgotten. Just as life changes with the seasons, may his spirit rejoice through our minds.

Recently, I was at a concert with cult singer Franco Battiato. When he sang a capella, one song

struck me particularly. La cura: 

I will protect you from the fears of hypochondria

from the anxiety you find on your path

from the injustice and deceit of your time

from the failures, which you, by nature, will attract

I will raise you above the pain and your mood swings

from the obsessions of your mind

I will overcome the gravitational currents

the space and the light

to prevent you from aging

And you will be cured from all the illnesses

cause you are a special human being

and I will take care of you

A few days after the concert, on the same day as my mother in law´s birthday, I found a small tiny bird on the ground. I almost stepped on it, since I did not see it sitting there. Then, surprised as I was, I spotted it: a small cute bird with red chest. He was looking up to me. I was looking down on him. I could not believe why he did not fly away. Then I felt sorry for him. I looked down and thought: maybe he need my help. It felt like he needed my help. So I took him in my hands and carried him to my house. Scared of getting him hurt by the cats I put him on a box on the table outside. Meanwhile, I was figuring out what to do. My boyfriend told me he must have blown away with the wind. Maybe he blew down from the nest, away from his mum. He said I should go look for his mum, so I did. I could not see any nest, nor mum. There were only small olive trees surrounding the spot. 

I went back to the box, looked at the tiny bird with caring eyes, and then: all of a sudden the bird took of, he flew away.

Happy of this visit, I felt my heart filled with compassion and wonder. And I thought: there must be some reason why this little tiny bird came into my life.

Two insights are embracing my life 

We all need someone who takes care of us, if only for a little while, sometimes

He who fights for peace, should indeed Rest In Peace

giraffa communication & elephant telepathy

Did you know there is a communication called the giraffa communication? It is about being an empathic listener. The name comes from the fact that the giraffa has the biggest heart of all the terrestrial animals.

I heard a story on the radio, which I wish to share. It was about a man called Lawrence Anthony. During the war he traveled from his home in South Africa to Iraq to save all the dying animals of the zoo of Bagdad. After he accomplished that, his heart felt the need of helping two herds of elephants in his area, threatened to life by the locals.

Lawrence went to the bushes close to the villages, stayed with the elephants, learnt their languages, earned their trust and started to communicate with them. He learnt that elephants can communicate even at miles apart. He could not explain how, he just knew.

One day, Lawrence sadly past away in his home by a heartattack. At the same exact instance the two herds of elephants started to walk towards his house. They walked for twelve hours, over a distance of more than twenty chilometers. I believe they must have felt his heart was not connected to theirs anymore.

They stayed outside his home mourning for two full days. I believe they felt he was a member of their herd. He was one of them.

female legs & pink flamingos - the secret behind real beauty

While I continue to hear and read about all the bad things that happen to human minds using Facebook or other social networks, I wish to put that aside for a bit here. Let me just add one detail. In some comic drawings, they illustrated Facebook as being today´s drug - worse than heroin!

I would like to write about something slightly, no...far more..no completely the opposite of the digital world today. I would like to talk about nature.

Have you ever heard of Fibonacci?
He was an Italian mathematic during 12th Century Pisa. But I would like to suggest that his knowledge went far beyond the limits of what is considered mathematics of today.

Fibonacci discovered some relations between certain numbers, of what we can call "magic numbers". This relation is an important pattern whcih many artist, architects, musicians use to achieve a work in harmony with nature. Why is that?

Yes, because the same pattern as Fibonacci found between numbers, you can find in nature. You can see it in flowers, butterflies, crystals, dolphins or trees which are some of the most preciously beautiful creations we have on earth.

Not only. World famous musicians such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart both used the series of Fibonacci to create their music. 

So, what is my conclusion here?

What nature made is beautiful and filled with harmony. What was created this way always will be.

At the contrary, a lot of what is created today is not in harmony with natural laws. Consider modern pop music, modern art, modern buildings and cars.

During my recent trip to Rovinj, Croatia, I was wondering how some places seems so incredibly magical, while others appear to have no soul at all. I strolled around the narrow white cobblestoned streets, surrounded by the blue ocean, marveling at the pastel colored buildings created by the Venetians during the 15th-17th Centuries. I was just out of breath of all this beauty human kind was capable of.

Then, I thought through all the countries I have traveled, all the cities I have seen, all the historical buildings I kept vivid in my heart. And all the most amazing creations I have seen, made by human kind, have always been at least five hundred years old.

Take Alhambra, outside of Granada for instance. This Arabic kingdom, located in Spain, has its origins from the 13th Century and is one of the world´s masterpiece considering geometria and perfection in art.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, is another case of human creation affined with perfection. It was also constructed around the same time, during the 12th Century.

So my theory is that people living five hundred years ago, or longer, they had an eye for building in harmony with nature and perfection. They knew what beauty was. Their only interest was to serve beauty, and no other interest which might prevail today such as economy, comfort or efficiency.

I would by this like to say that today´s crisis is not so much a crisis of economy, as it is a crisis of values, of culture and of beauty.

I wish human beings could learn from the past, rather than building stuff that they think will be enjoyable to look at in the future. In my view, Fibonacci was right all the time. We don´t need to look into the future for beauty. Real harmony can be found today, in nature.

running and running, but never leaving the Colosseum

Some people look for power
some people look for fame
some people look for prestige
to me its all the same

Some people look for love
some people look for honey
some people look for trouble
to me the problem in everybodys mind is money

Some people look for passion
some people look for travel
some people look for beauty
to me the essence of life is on another level

                                                                     Me


I have been writing on a few articles lately, not having to much spare time, nor inspiration to write
on my blog. However, I have come to the conclusion, the conclusions in my articles are always the same.

If you look at the paper I wrote on the microcosmos of bees, you will see how I through the text draw a red line comparing the bees with humans. If you look into a beehive, as you actually can do by watching a wonderful documentary called "More than bees", what you will learn is that bees have a complicated and intelligently built social pattern. They are all dependent on each other for the colony to survive. Each and every bee has a task to accomplish. The beehive survives through cooperation.
Through the documentary, it is a sad fact to see how the bees have been extinguished in certain parts of China by humans, while in the US they are being exploited and killed by millions.
While human beings are killing and extinguishing the bees, we are living in an increasingly individual society. This means we are not longer dependent on each other for survivance, and will in the end lead to a less integrated and more egoistic society. This is also a society where capitalistic powers can have a stronger control on the small individuals. Nature can therefore be less protected.
In an imaginery society where human beings would live just like a beehive, we would be dependent on each other, helping, caring and living in harmony with each other and with nature.

                                 Humans used violence against nature thousands of year ago, my question
                                            is: have we really come that far since Colosseum was the arena of violence?



Then, I also made a profound analysis of the profetia Maya. Discovering the myth behind the profetia, traveling nine hundred chilometers on Mexican territories, I found important insights behind the origins of it. Visiting Villahermosa, where the "Il Tortuguero numero 6" is located, I got a direct translation into Spanish of what was written in Mayan language thousands of years ago. What was really only the prediction of a god that would come down on earth to put some order, was by western fanatics interpreted as an apocalypse, for no real reason. There is no evidence that such a dramatic event would happen. There is, on the other hand, evidence that proves, that the world, in the eye of the Mayas, would not end. There is an inscription in the pyramids of Palenque stating a date far beyond December 23rd (not 21st!) 2012 when the apocalypse was predicted to destroy the earth.
However, what I find reasonable to believe is that the profetia only concerned the Mayan people. Many Mayan intellectuals have stated that they believe the profetia was intended for their own people. They believe their community should have some kind of compensation due to how they have been treated since the Spanish conquered their territories in the 15th Century. Many thinkers also believes the western world should learn from the Mayans: their respect for nature, their worship of mother earth, their capacity of being in harmony with the living beings.

In the end, my conclusion is always the same - human beings are threatening the survivance of mother earth and not living in harmony with her origins. Exploiting is not a long-term solution. Capitalism is destroying important balances which may never be replaced again. Humanity´s greed for more are leading us on a dangerous path, where only we, today can change its course.
We are running, and running, always looking forward. Maybe we should stop, stand still and reflect upon this: what are we running for and have we ever thought about where we are going to end up?

the face of an angel

Today I almost hit a small hedgehog with my car. It was crossing over the road in the center of Florence, in a place I was not expecting it to be. Luckily I managed to avoid it, but I am not sure the car behind me did. I feel so bad about that: If I would have stopped the car, then the car behind me would have to too. What happened to the small animal? How about my own karma?
I wish I could be a quick thinker so that I would have reacted in just a second, but I am not.

I am following a blog written by a young Swede who is dying of cancer. He has not reached his thirties yet, still he is a good journalist and his book was a bestseller in Sweden, though he is dying. He often writes about all the things he would do if he would have been healthy. He dreams about his past, about his journeys, about becoming a grand journalist in New York.
He often writes that life is so beautiful, and I wish I could appreciate it more than I do.
Is it only when we are living on the edge that we fully can worship life?
Should we take more advantage of our talents while we are still healthy and can?

Yesterday was a black day. I recieved the news that a friend who I got to know three years ago in Beijing had died. He was brutally killed in his homeland, Ecuador. He was a photo-journalist but did not die because of that. His brother is a minister so newspapers speculate whether or not this might have been the cause.
I don´t know, but what I do know is that he was a very brave good hearted soul. We spent some weeks getting acquainted, and during those moments we just shared thoughts and experiences. He had such a pure heart, he had no interest towards me, just to get to know me. After he left he sent me an email telling me he was happy that we met.
Why do many of the warmest hearted people die prematurely?
I wish this world could have more people in it like Juan Antonio, pure noble hearts.
God put angels on earth, some leave early, some stay for longer.
The face of a small hedgehog looks like the face of an angel, and who knows, maybe it is an angel?
Nobody knows how they really look like, do they?

what facebook is doing to the human eye, and why we are to blind to see it

"I wish I could have lived during the sixties"
 Me            

Jovanotti, a famous Italian singer, writes in his book "Il grande boh" that during full moon he encounters problems being creative. He usually stays up at night, since nighttime is when inspiration comes to him. During full moon he cannot focus on anything, his mind is dizzy, his body is anxious.

Sleep, I believe is something fundamental to us. Sleep, and also to let our eyes sleep at times. The modern human being is forgetting how she used to live like. She thinks that sitting in front of a computer is something normal, something sane. She never takes into consideration the fact that a hundred and fifty years ago, the human species spent their days on the land growing vegetables, or hunting or fishing in the forest.

The human eye is formed as a boiled egg, and what holds it there are six muscles that enables it to focus. When the human being used to walk in the forest, looking at birds, glazing at the horizon, she was training up the eyes´muscles. Today, sitting in front of the computer, looking at the iPhone, textmessaging, watching television our focus is still for hours. These habits are not only damaging for a day-to-day eye-sight, it causes some people having to wear eye-glasses since the eyes muscles itself are not able to change the focus. Eye-glasses are like a wheel-chair for the legs. 

A recent research at the University of Michigan, suggests that Facebook makes you unhappy. The research involved surveying 82 undergrads and showed that the more time the college students said they spent on Facebook, the more likely they were to report feeling a little less chipper, a little less satisfied with life. 

"The more people reported using Facebook, the more negative they were feeling following Facebook use," Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.

Over the years, various studies have made a range of observations about our Facebook relationships: that posting photos alienates your friends, that "Liking" a post will nudge other friends who see it to do the same etc.

Here, to be complete the survey needs to differentiate between various kinds of activities on Facebook — whether the participants were simply browsing, posting public messages, or "liking" posts and photos. 

Facebook experience is influenced in no small part by "what you're doing online, and whom you're doing it with", for instance has satisfaction been a result of surveys when the undergrad students were communicating with their close friends or loved ones.

Considering human beings are complex creatures, and our online behavior reflects that too, it's perhaps not too surprising that this study shows how our actions influence our state of mind, even about the world's biggest social network.

Meanwhile the average American spends 31 minutes on Facebook each day, sleeping time has decreased to 6,5 hours per night, compared to 8 hours just one generation ago. In the last decades, sleep is increasingly considered as a waste of time: you snooze you lose. The digital culture promoves being "on", not "off". That the seemingly solitary sleep is dependent on a lived community makes the attack on the nightly rest, pictures the idea of how ​​a more cohesive society has broken down in favor of an ideology of individual success and fulfillment. Unproductiveness of sleep - the only remaining opportunity where we can neither work nor consume - is what Marx called a "natural barrier" against capitalism: that we sleep less and less is seen as an expression of the market's inherent demands for expansion.

The digital culture has effectively increased the commercialization of more and more aspects of our lives and normalized a connection 24/7 - around the clock. This has several consequences. The most obvious and often-discussed (but it seems to help) is that we make ourselves constantly exposed to intrusion and monitoring. We can say whatever we want about our abilities at ignoring ads in our Facebook feeds: no one can escape from the ongoing collection of our digital behaviors, which are then analyzed and resold.

Another consequence is how the constant readiness to perform different types of services places us in an ongoing digital training camp, where the distinctions between work and leisure, between public and private, between the living and the organization disappears. Any kind of set-up time can be filled with narcissistic self-reflection or construction of the personal brand. All occasions for real subjectivity, to free thoughts flow and daydreaming disappear.

When interpersonal contact is reduced to an interface, our responsibility for others finds itself eliminated, argue Crary, the writer of the book 24/7. Walter Benjamin noted that 18th Century people, which quickly became accustomed to the new congestion on city streets and trams, were the first generation to be systematically trained not to meet the other's gaze. Over a hundred years later, smart appliances prevent spontaneous meetings. More important still, 24/7 gives the illusion of a time without waiting and immediate gratification. As a result, patience, that is a prerequisite for any democracy is weakening: listening to others, waiting for their turn to speak.

24/7 is a time zone with no time, a world without shadows. Certainly, no one can work, shop, play, blog or do networking around the clock, but since today there is no time, place or situation in which one can not consume goods or use social networking, 24/7 infuses every aspect of our lives. But somewhere in the no man's land between society and nature, a resistance action is sleeping, which reminds us that another world is possible, and to some extent exists. A world where the earth and the sun moves and separates day from night. A world where we could relax.

Now that Facebook has entered an alliance with Ericsson and Nokia to deliver internet access to the worlds developing countries - in order to reach out to another four billion people - investing over 1 billion dollars, you do not need to be a genius to predict what is going to happen. Billions of people will see their lives changed; they will sit in front of screens, damaging their eyesight, getting bad sleep at night, feeling unhappy visiting facebook.

Why are we too blind to see what Facebook is doing to our lives, not only in terms of eyesight and sleep but also our state of mind?
Do we really need more human beings to suffer the same way as we do?

upupa sings a song for me

During crisis and pain, we can discover love. In a desperate situation we are filled with unconditional love. The word crisis is like cross roads. Violence and pain cannot stay in a space full of love and light. Angels landing from above, dissolving the dark wherever they go.


The other day I was amazed. While laying in the hammock reading a book, a small upupa bird (hoopoe) shows up.
It came to sit just within three foot-steps of reach. It was looking at me with curious eyes. It looked as if it wanted to tell me something, but I couldn´t understand it´s language. I just had a subtle feeling.


I had to find out more about this incredible bird, which was so pretty to me. Not only was I impressed by it´s colours, but also the soul felt light as its feathers.


I read that it´s name was given by a Swedish ornithologist, Mr Linneas in 1758. By that time the bird was common on Swedish ground. It used to be common in England as well, but was later (after the 50s) extinguished, probably because of the overuse of pesticides in agriculture.


I wonder if this particular individual could come flying from Egypt. In ancient Egypt, upupa was considered a sacred bird, it was forbidden to kill it and it was often illustrated on thumbs. I am sorry to know that life is not as sacred in today´s Egypt.


In Greek and latin mythology the upupa is instead considered to be a despicable in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. When the king of Thrace, Tereus's wife Procne (learnt of the rape of her sister Philomela by her husband) servs dishes cooked with the meat of their son Iti, Tereus tries to kill her and is turned into a upupa while Procne became a swallow and Philomela a nightingale. The god´s choice of  the upupa comes from the crest of this bird that indicates royalty, while the long, pointed beak recalls the violent nature of King Tereus.

In the Bible, upupa should not be eaten, since considered the bird of sin.


In the Coran upupa is a messenger.


In old Persia, upupa is considered the bird of virtue.


In Europe the upupa was considered a thief, just like the magpies. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, seeing an upupa was associated with an imminent war. The sound of the bird hip hip was a prediction of a non-peaceful period of time.


In the Baltic countries, hearing their singing is an omen of death to humans or animals. They use to think the upupa was able to establish a contact between the realm of the living and the death.


After reading the history about upupa, I wonder if the choice of Israel to use the upupa as its national bird was just a random one.


I do believe us humans were more connected to human earth once. We felt nature, and nature could speak through us. Most of us lost this deep connection to mother nature. So my feeling is there is some truth to be found in the knowledge of the past regarding the upupa.


However, the bird confuses me. Why did it show up on August 14th, the worst day of killings in Egypt. If it really is supposed to be the "bird of death" then why did I feel like it was telling me to live my life as much as I could.

sowing seeds

                                                                                                                  









De parvis grandis acervus eris
out of something small, great things can be accomplished


Looking back, on August 1st one year ago, I posted some thoughts regarding the owl - the sign of transformation. Now, a whole year has past by, and what have I learnt since.


                                                                 
I learnt the essence of: sowing seeds



Sowing seeds can be interpreted in many different ways. You may sow flowers, vegetables or other seeds to make your garden look beautiful, to have tasty vegetables or just a greener environment. This is partly what I have been doing.
I have planted almost two hundred plants of tomatoes, together with zucchini, peppers, unions, potatoes, cucumbers, aubergines...



It has been an amazing journey to see the tomatoe plants become two meters high and full
of red fruits hanging from them, when four months earlier they were only a 1 mm small seed.
To see something so small and vulnerable, become something so hugh and generous, is awarding. You dedicate a lot of your time taking care of these plants, from watering them when they are small, to eliminating branches and tying them when they get bigger. The fun part is to pick the fruit. That is the time when you can fully sense the satisfaction of your fatigues. The taste of the tomatoes is the proof your work has been rewarding.

There are many ways to sow seeds on. I have been imagining myself being a seed. I do this as a meditation. I bend down lying like a baby in my mothers stomach. In there I am safe, since I am just a small tiny seed. Then something happens to me. I can feel the warmth coming, filling my whole body from within. It gets so warm, I feel I need to move. I take my first moves, up towards the sun. I slowly move my arms up to touch the sky. My legs are bending open now, standing up. I feel I want to reach the sky, my whole body is a plant which is growing towards the sun, almost feeling as if I could touch it. Finally the tense feeling of reaching out gets to a climax. I yell out loud, then I let my arms hang down, relaxing.



Another way to sow seeds is in life. Whatever your aims, your goals, your ambitions are. Start to sow some seeds here and there. Look for the right people and let them know what you desire. Keep your eyes open, never let an occasion go out of hand. Each moment in life can be a moment to sow a seed. Slowly, but safely, you will see that what you are sowing will start to grow.
Whether it is about a job, a material thing, a spiritual path, a journey or a relationship.



In relationships, especially, sowing seeds are important. When making new friends you are sowing new seeds. Then, in time, you need to make sure to take care of the friendship. If you do not take care of the plant that is growing, it will grow out of hand. A relation is just as a fragile flower - you need to take daily care of it. You need to water it, give it some nutrition, let it stand in the sun. If you do not add some positive energy to the relationship, sooner or later it is condemned to break.



Sowing seeds are important for our lives. They can make our dreams come true. They make our relationships last long. They help us achieve what we want in life.
But you need to remember to have no rush. Growing is a long process, it takes time and a lot
of energy and care.


     Chi va piano va sano e va lontano
                                                                                             Who goes slowly, goes healthy, goes far

bear encounter before a long rest

meanwhile the last few maple leaves fell from the trees
your body left the surface of the planet earth
you took farewell in the same place where your life first saw the sun
in that same stead you finally laid down to rest
but that site is forever yours, and you are forever the site

your body, as the mountain, heavy and full of wisdom
you were magnanimous just as the wide vastness of the forest
you were a torrential current, as the river with its magnificent power
your heart knew of no limits, as the infinity of the horizon
you were generous as the woodland with its red gold

you could flare up just as a heap of leaves that blow in the wind
just as fast you would calm down again
your calm was as a lake, your still reflection in the water
your footsteps just as stable as a pine and fir
you were soft and mysterious as a fen
your eyes were warm as the colours of the maple leaves

every time I walk in your forest, breathe the air, pick the berries, I will think of you
cause now you live amongst us, your spirit float between the tree tops
you still exist in the water drops that falls on the spruce hut
you are eternally there in the air the trees breathe, in every single breath
the pines whisper your name, the creek and the thrushes sing your song

when I walk there I know in my heart,
while the beautiful colours of autumn fade away and enter the bleakness of the winter
your spirit will rest, as the bear hibernate
then later, on the first day of spring
it will see light again when the first life begin to sprout
you are once again a part of everything
you, the king of the forest

Today it was exactly two months ago that I left Florence in a rush to go to see my family. A family member, my step father, my mother´s husband had sadly past away in an accident a few days earlier.
It came as a shock to us all. No one was prepared to face such pain and sorrow.
I was really scared at first. I thought I never could handle facing such sadness. Then I thought about my family, and at sudden I knew I had to face the situation. At least I had to do it for them. We had to be united in such difficult times.
It helped me to write about his death. I wrote a poem, then I wrote articles which were later published
in different newspapers. Many people were affected by his sudden farewell. He knew many, many knew him. He was that kind of person that everybody knows. Any time he came you would notice him. Now that he is not here with us, he left an emptiness. A hole not easy to fill again.
The only way I know is to continue to write about him and talk about him. If we learn from him,
he will continue living amongst us. Cause a person is not its flesh and blood. A human being is such because of what he or she stands for. For what one worship. And we can continue to treasure those values he cared for. We can try to embody what he lived for.

Three nights ago we were once again remembered of his presence. That he never really left us. Only his physical body left this earth. This time his appearance was quite unusual and unexpected.
My mother and brother, still living in the same house where he lived almost all his life, were woken up two hours past midnight by an animal barking. At first they believed it was the neighbour´s dog. But then they thought it was too loud so they went out to see. On the street outside their house they could spot a small fox barking under the light. It semt rather scared. Like it was barking of fear.
They returned to the house. My mother told my brother to have a look from the balcony if he could see any other animal. He could see nothing because of the dark. But he heard a very loud growl just a few meters away. Then he could sense a heavy animal lope away from the house towards the forest. By then he was sure it was a bear. He wanted to go out into the dark to see it. But my mother stopped him. None of them had never ever seen a wild bear, none the less would they ever expect to see one just outside their door.

Next day, at daylight, they did go out. They saw traces from the bear all over their garden. He had eaten from their apples. He had been outside their cellar where they keep even more apples. He had been spying around their property. There were traces everywere.
When my mother told me the story, I was shocked, but also convinced. This was her husband coming back to greet her. For the last time before winter. Bear usually eat as much as they can before hibernating. He was probably really hungry. And he knew there were lots of apples in his own garden -who would know it better than himself?
My mother was worried he would come back the next night, and the next. But I told her, no need to worry. It is only her husband coming back again for a last farewell. And she should put out the apples from the cellar so that he has enough food for the long sleep during wintertime.

I know this will not be his last time to lay down and rest. May he rest in peace.

we are star dust

Infinito cielo stellare: ti guardo e subito mi domando "cos´altro sono oltre a quello che gia so di essere?"

Infinite sky of stars: I look at you and I ask myself "Who am I, more than what I already know to be?"


Sometimes I wonder if there is a parallell world for me on some other place on this earth. I wonder how I would be, how I would live, what kind of people I would be surrounded by.
Is there more sides to me to discover? Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my life. Each time I traveled far in space and time I have discovered new parts of myself. Secret rooms of a huge unhabited castle I never visited before. There can be treasures there to be find, but also others rooms which I rather would not walk into.

At times I am amazed of what I find inside. There can be all kinds of magic in there. That is why I always have risked everything. Sometimes you need to leave all you have behind if you want to find something new. Each and every time I find a new secret room, I grow. Life becomes magic. It is just as if there is a whole undiscovered world inside me, full of unknown talents. There are two events in my life which made me realize this.
There are two dependant conditions. For your potential to fully bloom, you need to risk all you have, and you need to have faith. Universe, in the end, is nothing but energy.

During the phase of my life while living in China I had a desperate need of moving. My housing situation was going beyond control and I had only two or three days of time to move. But I could find no place nice to stay in. While walking on the street with a Chinese friend, a lady comes up to me on the street. It turns out I go to live with her and her sweet son. That was the beginning of living together with a wonderful Chinese family and a friendship that will last forever.

 

 

I always wanted to meet a Swedish singer. I knew all her songs by the age of twelve. I used to sing her songs, playing them on my guitar.
While living in Stockholm for a brief period of time, I felt time had come to realize my dream of seeing the singer live. I seriously thought about it for weeks, and told my friends how I could feel it coming. I had faith it would happen. I was very lucky to recieve four tickets to her realease concert, which was only for invited guests. The concert was amazingly intimate.
I stood only a few meters away from the singer. But I still felt it was not enough  - I felt I needed to talk to her. My curiosity was taking over.

After a few weeks time I told my friend I had faith that time had come. I was walking with her in a park, and when we split up, she called me telling me she had just seen the singer there. But I could not see her anywhere. I felt disappointment coming over me like a cold shower. I laid down on a bench in the sun. The warm sunlight gave me strenght. Lying there I realized this was not the only chance. Somewhere deep inside, I knew there would be more chances.

Next day me and the same friend was watching a concert in a jazz club. Music was wonderful.
We were enjoying the company and our drinks. When I looked around me, I was almost chocked when I saw the singer standing just at an armlength of distance from me. I almost did not believe my eyes. But I realized my moment had come. I had faith this moment would come. And here it was.
So I did not hesitate one second. I stood up, and went over to talk to her.

Now I wonder If there is a new secret room to discover for me? Shall I follow my instinct or will it bring me on a tuff winding road again? Where will I find total peace?

It might be that our destiny is written in the stars. It might even be so that each and every one of us used to be a star. When someone dies a star stops gloving. When somebody is born, a new star starts shining in the sky. Or is it that the light that comes from a star is born inside of us at birth?
If we could carry that light inside of us, that little star, we could be happier. If we could have more faith in universe life might be easier. If you believe your destiny is written in the stars, you need to have faith. You do not need to worry anymore. Destiny will take care of you. Little star.


Siamo figlie delle stelle (We are the children of the stars)
 

owl transformation on a full moon night

“I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.”

                                                                                                                              Mahatma Gandhi

Today I had a strong emotional experience watching a movie. It is not every day I get moved by films, at least not as strongly as this one, and not as profound. The story is about a vet student who loses his both parents in an accident and end up going to work for a circus. He fells in love with the woman who trains the horses. In the very beginning one of the white horses dies from a disease. It is sad. I cannot support watching horses getting hurt, none the less die. It reminded me of the time when I saw a real horse getting carried away for slaughtery. It was full moon that evening, and I cried.
But the event that made me cry desperately was when the circus director is hurting the elephant really badly. The elephant is lying down, full of wounds and blood. It was a terrible scene. It made me full of sorrow and pain.

Elephants are spiritual, and deeply emotional animals. I experienced that myself on a trip to Mandalkiri, Cambodia where I realized my dream of riding an elephant. I was not sitting on the back in a box like many poeple do. I asked to sit on the head of the elephant, to steer it with my own feet, and so I did. It was a truly wonderful feeling. After riding for a while, we stopped in the djungle to swim together with the elephant. In the water I had a spiritual, close-to-euphoria, experience. When I was bathing the giant animal, and getting so close to him that I could touch his face, I looked deep into his eyes as he was lying in the water relaxing. It was something special to me. Unexplainable.
What moved me the most was what happened while riding our way back to the village, where we had to cross a road with cars. A big truck with loads of standing people on it, came towards us, backing up to let people watch the elephants. Both people and truck were very loud. The elephants got really scared, they were trembling and we were shaking. They were screeming like frightened children. They tried to run away. The mahouts got really nervous, hitting the elephants with a stick to avoid them to escape. In that moment something that I will never forget happened: one elephant took the other´s trunk and twirled it around his own trunk. That way they were looking like they were hugging each other. They were comforting each other.

I was not surprised when I read the news that an elephant had killed two trainers while escaping from a zoo. The elephant did not even touch the people that had not caused him any harm. He only killed or hurted the ones that had been evil to him  earlier on. I believe this is karma.
They say elephants and horses remember everything. I would like to sign on to that. I belive that if you hurt an animal, it will one day, sooner or later, get revenge.
I will not tell you here the end of the film, but I can assure you the end has to do with karma.
I never hurted my horse and she has never ever even tried to bite me. A neighbour of mine just got bit by his horse really badly. That horse was used to violence from his earlier owner.

The other day, while I was walking my dog as I usually do in the evenings, I saw a a beautiful white barn owl. It was quite and calm outside, the night was black except for the road lights that lightened up the way. The owl was sitting majestly on top of an electric cord, standing out as it was, huge and white, in the black night. I had an emotional boost, since it was one of the very few times in my life, and for sure the first time seeing a barn owl. I knew by seeing it transformation was on its way. Owls bare a rumor of being the symbol for change. So I felt. I find myself in a moment of life, undergoing different transformations. Seeing the owl was just an affirmation that I am walking in the right direction. All the changes I am living right now will benefit me in one way or another. I could sense I am having positive vibes. Attracting all kinds of animals lately should be a sign for that.

Tonight is full moon. Full moon always makes me wonder about our connection to this earth, universe and existing as a whole. How come the cycle of the moon is just as long as the femal cycle? Every time I watch the moon, I always try to see if I can trace its face. Normally I always find the two eyes, the nose and...yes, its smiling mouth. It appears to me the moon is always smiling. I wonder why? Does life on earth look really funny from so far away? Are our day to day problems so small, if you look at them from a distance? I wonder if the moon would have the answer to all these questions.

meditation on a pear tree: enjoying life from a fruit perspective

 "in the universe there is a huge tree which nourishes all unborn souls"

                                                                                                                           Aztec belief

Just a few days ago I was sitting on top of a pear tree meditating. Looking down under me, I watched my two horses and donkeys chewing and enjoying the sweet pears that fell down to the ground. It seems sitting up there, you could look at life from a different perspective. Sometimes very little is needed in order for us to look at the world with brighter, more clear eyes.
Letting my animals eat from what mother nature has to offer gave me a feeling of deep satisfaction. Just as a mother watching its child swim for the first time, I felt happy since they really enjoy eating fresh fruit. And what could be more fresh than pears directly from the tree?

While meditating up on the tree I imagined myself being one of the many pears. I could visualize for a while a pear tree full of people. On each branch, instead of a family of pear I could see a family of people. And then the bigger branch included the bigger family, and so on. This way we create a whole society of pears. A tree full of people. Everyone with different shapes and forms. Some are sweeter than others. Some are more mature than others. Some grow old quickly. Some stay young for all their lives. But in the end we are not that different from each other. Just like a tree of pears, we humans are quite similar to each other. Some stick out a little bit more, some hide away behind the leaves. But we all connect somehow. We all suffer in one way or another. We all have similarities. Things to share with each other.

Once we stay on the branch with our pear family life is generally easier. It is when we fall down, become mature, that we need to take responsibility for our own lives, everything gets a bit more complicated. For some people it can be the freedom they always wished for. And for most sooner or later they create their own little family - on a new branch with other small little pears.

Sitting in a comfortable position on the tree, I was listening to the song of the balm cricket and meditating about some people that live close to me. I could see how people seem to become more and more individualistic. It almost appears that we are living in a narcissistic era. Society is hedonistic: focus is to have fun, always, in every situation.
I read that in order to develop a good self esteem you should avoid narcissistic concepts such as impatience, constant acknowledgment, focusing on yourself and your own goals, stay away from negative feedback, comparing with others, and fixate with your own appearance.

A healthy self esteem should be based upon letting go of your own self, your own ego. Dedicate yourself to others and their needs, achieve vision that are not only about yourself,  reward effort and learning plus having an immense patience. At the moment when I was sitting up on the tree shaking the tree so that the pears fell down to the ground, these feelings appeared. I believe that many having babies can have the same feeling - when you dedicate yourself to the baby you feel better.

Part of my meditation was also about acceptance. I am reading a book on the subject, which makes me contemplate. It is not easy to accept a lot of things in life. I often realize I try to avoid thinking things or feeling in certain ways. But my book says I should not try to avoid it. It says I shall just open up the doors to my inner self, let the thoughts be there, let the feelings come and go. Just as clouds on the sky. Not try to change them or influence them. Just let them be. Thoughts and feelings are just that. They are not real as long as you do not act them out. If you manage to see them as human constructions, not as a copy of reality, you can more easily invite them in, let them come and go, not keep them, and not change them. Just accept them.

In many Buddhist contries, and also in ancient China, you don´t use the expression "I am sad", "I am happy" or "I am angry". You would say "There is a sadness", "There is a hapiness", or "There is angriness". You are not your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings just live inside you for a little while. And you can choose which feelings and which thoughts feel good to live with inside of you. Thoughts that are constructive for you in some way.
Just as waves in the sea, both positive and negative feelings come, culminate and fade out. How many times do we not wish to stop, change or inhibit the uncomfortable feelings? Sometimes it works, but most of the time not. What we can do is to "surf" on the feelings just like a pelican surf the Pacific ocean waves - to have them and to be in them - but without acting upon them or lie floating upon them.

There is so much suffering in this world. We can choose to not suffer. If we accept more what happens in our life, in ourselves, all around us. The things that happen around us may not create suffering just because it happens. It is the way we look upon them that create the suffering.
Next time you feel anxious, you should try to sit up in a pear tree, see the world from a different point of view and try to immagine being a small green pear. Sweet and innocent. Just existing.

the importance of speech for our well-being

Your thoughts create your speech, your speech create communication, your communication create reactions, reactions creates relations, relations is the mirror of your well-being.
                                                                   Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom


Have you ever wondered about how speech and languages are important for us human beings?

The unique with us humans is suicide. Suicide is an action that no other living creature on this planet committs. How come? What distinguishes us from other life?

The answer could be the speech. Humans can speak and communicate in a way that no other creature is able to. Speech have enormous cultural and biological advantages, but also psychological costs. Speech in a wider sense (images, thoughts, writing, singing etc), is an efficient help to pass culture in all its forms. Let us not forget our capacity of quickly communicating vital information.

We can connect through reflecting and sharing information about our inner self. This way we can strengthen our community. But speech can also cause trouble. It can even cause pain.

Speech is an abstract phenomenon which enables us to interpret and misinterpret each other. Negative feelings are often associated to neutral verbal activities - words. Word have power. When you think or say a word, you are starting a series of activities. Words create images, feelings, physical sensations and actions. Plus, words have the power to create pervasive basic perceptions about ourselves if you allow them to exist in our conscious for too long. If you tell yourself: "I am worthless and ugly" five hundred times a day - how will you feel like in the evening? What will you do?

Words are not objective, true or even real. But they still have the power to create suffering. An experiment to test that would only be possible on a human being. A stately lion or a hot-tempered ant do not have the capacity to comprehend words such as useless and ugly. None the less say those or communicate those words to others. The consequence: the ant will continue struggling, maybe suffering, maybe happy. At least, she will not feel ashamed or bad about herself.

The words also have the power to affect us positively and functionally. We have, luckily, also the capacity to sometimes think good, helpful and happy thoughts or thoughts which are neutral and realistic. The problem for us are knowing which ones are good to socialize with. Which ones should we let affect us?

The negative thoughts have a tendency to dominate many peoples minds, creating unpleasant pain, which worsen their lives. We need some sort of mental discipline and training in order to identify and socialize with the helpful, realistic and happy thoughts, knowing that they, as well as the dark and negative, are just that - thoughts! With other words: words as constructions.

What is interesting about culture and speech, is moreover how languages can form our minds and behaviour.
Scientists say that in these days, the overlapping of different cultures are creating a new kind of human being: Homo Biculturalis.

Luigi Anolli, professor of psychology at the University of Bicocca, in Milan states that "During the study of Chinese Unviersity students in American campuses we discovered that these youngsters have a mind capable of moving with ease not only from one language to another, but also between different value systems. They are individul and hedonistic with their American friends, but respectful and modest with their Chinese counterparts".

We are not talking about schizofrenia or hypocrisy here: the fact is that their minds are really capable of functioning in two different ways without contradiction. Images obtained through magnetic resonance prove it: when the students are induced to feel American, they elaborate concepts such as "mother", "myself" and "another person", in different parts of the brain. When they are induced to feel Chinese the same concepts overlap in the same area of the brain.

Biculturalism which alter the architecture of the brain is the theme of the book of professor Anolli. "To have a mind equipped with many different cultural "tool boxes" will be crucial to move around in an increasingly interconnected world. It might become such an important factor for success that, in the long run, it could reveal itself as a reproductive advantage. In the human gene pool these brain characteristics will spread",

What differentiates the impact on the human mind when humans of today mix - in respect of before - is the social and technological conditions. For instance Italian immigrants in the United States first created a half-cast culture, then progressively, mixed in the melting pot. Today, cultural identities are stronger and contacts with mother homeland through travels and internet are intense and continuing.

"Individuals that grow up in between two cultures do not wish to be assimilated with one or the other. They rather wish to be a bridge between these", Agnolli says. "This gives them an extraordinary advantage, both as mental openness and professional possibilities. They are precious persons, that each country and region should value highly".

everybody is looking for fame - with or without Facebook

everybody is looking for fame; to have their fifteen minutes of notoriety, maybe on facebook

     

                                                                                           Roberto Benigni, Italian director

Facebook is a phenomena of strong impact. Up until today there are 850 millions members and its band-with is increasing with 10 million of users per month.

As I earlier stated I have started annabook as a healthy alternative to Facebook. Though I admit the many positive sides a global platform such as facebook have, I feel the negative aspects are far more damaging to the individual as well as to the world as a whole. I have seen many dangerous signs from the continuing development of Facebook, but no real resistance to this movement to be found. I am not trying to convince anyone to stop using Facebook. I just think that many individuals are not really reflecting upon how they use Internet, and the long-term effects their habits might have. I believe more people need to be aware of the cyber-world they are merged in before they click "agree".

Let me start with some positive aspects regarding Facebook. We have all seen how much power such a platform had during the spring revolutions in the arabic world. It might not have been facebook and other social networks that started the revolution, but it can be stated that these worked as a way to connect thousands and thousands of individuals to stand up against their leaders. Such a massive demonstration, especially in strongly controlled dictatorships, could otherwise have been hard to realize.

Many also like to show on the way these social networks can be a way to democratize the world. Through sharing, and especially when sharing without paying for it, we can get together and change things. If we are enough people, we can make things come true.

An example of how lots of people together changed the world was "the invisible children". An American was filming in Uganda when he discovered how the rebels kidnapped thousands and thousands of children and turned them into child warriors. Since the US government would not do anything to stop it, he started an organization, which grew and grew and today has thousands of members. The organization even managed, through pressure, have Obama send a small troupe of soldiers to protect the children in Uganda. And all this was made thanks to a huge amount of people getting together, through various platforms or social networks.

A third positive example of how facebook can be a good thing is for connecting with people which might otherwise not be having contact with anyone. Lonely people or elderly which do not have a lot of social contact, can find such on websides such as facebook. But here again, I am sceptical because of the real quality of such connection. Is not the lonely person looking for friends on Facebook, not only making illusionary friends? is not a real friend someone you should meet and have a direct relation with? Facebook might be a great way for some people to exhibit what they do in their lives, and just as Benigni says, it might feel like they are standing in the spotlight. But are they really being paid attention to, or is it just an imagination developed in a virtual world?

I will willingly agree, that if a platform is used in these ways they are positive. But as it turns out these are only the good sides of it. The darker sides are often sides many people do not know about, or are too lazy to really care about. Or they know about the negative sides but continue using the platform anyway for its good sides. Any way, it is important that each and every one of us open our eyes for what social networks are doing to us. And here is some of it.

During the year 2012, the fight between the giant four of Internet has intensified, according to Swedish Newspaper DN. Each and every one of these would like to rule the world: the e-commerce giant Amazon, the social network Facebook, the search engine Google and Apple. So why is it not until now that these globalized companies have culminated? Because before they were doing business in different branches.  The key to expansion today for these companies is to find ways to connect our social lives with  our consumption, and try doing this with their own hardware. Their strategy is to merge culture, media, newspaper, music and products so that all comes in on the same arena.

When it comes to Tv entertainment Google/Youtube and Amazon not only act as distributors, but also as producers, with their own channels and program development. The key word is to control the whole experience. For both national TV-companies as well as Internet companies, the digitalization brings possibilities of mapping viewers preferences. In other words, the television is watching us, just much as we are watching it.

During these last months, a couple of news have proven that the four Internet giants are moving their positions forward against each other - and the users! During the launching of its new policy, Google stated its right to store our personal web history for eternity - in order to produce personalized advertising!

During the mapping of our lives, the Internet companies do need our formal agreement. What they do therefore is to make sure that we, the users, register. The giants' collection of data is so enormous. Such an amount of data has never previously been seen during history. The global giants have found a the world's largest and best sellers - our friends!

Social commerce, the so called s-commerce, will lift our willingness to consume to new levels. Generally people have developed a scepsis against sellers, advertising and other one-direction publicity. Of our friends, on the other hand, we still have faith. Therefore our shopping habits will be merged with our social interaction. Next month Facebook will be introduced to the stock market with an extremely high evaluation. The reason is that Facebook is the world's biggest and most natural junction

 - family wise, locally, and globally - with an outspoken intention of a meeting spot for consumption.

The strategy of the giant four is no longer to build its business around one unique branch. You do not earn money on selling some few products, but rather on the knowledge of when, what and how you manage to sell to people. These companies want to know, and build their business-models according to, people's psychology and behavior.

The stories we buy are being adapted to a market need - but the opposite way will also be used: marketing will be adapted to the stories we are ready to hear. A Swedish marketing-strategist working for facebook Ninni Lindertz said that instead of one-way messages to consumers, facebook's advertising will be composed of an interactive "storytelling", where the offers have a direct correlation to our lives. If you are planning to have an Italian dinner, an ad for an Italian wine, that a friend have recommended earlier, might pop up.

The giant are developing more and more ways to get into people's brains, passing by their social relations. What are people thinking of? What do they want to pay for? What do people want in one hour?

In this movement, Amazon, Apple, Googl and Facebook, will dominate in the next coming years. Other such "social" companies are for example Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter. These are companies which, just like the giant four, are based on human knowledge and social behavior, rather than technical competence.

This struggle has led to a repeated intrusions in our private spheres and trading of people's choices in a legal grey zone. A couple of weeks ago, it was discovered that Twitter , through the company Datasift, had offered all the twitter history (including information of the user's location) during the last two month to external companies. It was recently detected that Google and Apple use cookies and apps to spy on its users. In one case with iPhone, Apple had distributed the access to users private address-books  and photos.

Even if the mapping of our behavior has come a long way, the control of our thoughts are only just in the beginning. New methods for measuring are always developing. Apple has taken patent of an interface for reading of our eye movement. The company Senseye proclaims it next year will have a program ready for telephones that can register how we react on different pages and read.

The US has also developed a software that is capable of screening eye movements and the change of size of the pupil. This way the program can detect and avoid criminal actions before they are committed. 

What is stunning to me is not the huge amount of treading by these four giant. What is surprising to me is that no one appears to be protesting against this. Neither are parties or organization working for integrity moving a finger.

No matter which will be the players on the market in ten years, the monitoring of the worlds population is built on participation, on a freewill basis. The giant four therefore need to take care about their reputation as a nice friendly company with compelling visions. This is getting harder as controlling ambitions increase. What will be decisive for success will be the fact that in the end these companies deliver convenience. Life becomes more comfortable with the integration of our needs.

Today we can only guess what the commercializing and mapping do to our social relations and how it affects our relationship to the net giants. However, not much fantasy or cynism are needed to see the risk for a decisive next step will be that the market players and the states - of course with a nobel motive - unite their data. This way they can study our behavior, read our thoughts, deliver us products, drain our purse and intervene before we commit false actions.

All we need to do is that one and only click "I agree".

music can cure your heart

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in
                                                Leonard Cohen, master in arts
           

In my last post I was writing about how facebook is a world which makes me feel disconnected to the essence of life and the surrounding universe. I wrote that on the other hand there are many things which make me feel connected, amongst them are animals, traveling, passions, people etc. 
I do not know how I could forget one of the most amazing of them all: MUSIC!
Music has like no other managed to open my heart to the world in a unique way. On certain occasions, only music has the power to penetrate my heart and soul and leaves me without breath. 

Here I am going to tell you one of my stories about music, though there are many more to be told. 
I once went to a small concert in one of the old quarters of Beijing, in the old town, the hutongs. The concert was held in an old style indoor patio, very colorful and cozy. The ambient was warm and friendly.
Though everything seemed like the perfect setting I was not feeling well at the time. I was feeling blue, lonely and isolated from the world. I was feeling lost.

As the music started and the three musicians set down, playing exotic oriental instruments, something happened. Just as the main musician started to stamp his feet where he had attached some bells, and played on the strange looking guitar, some of my inner strings started to move as well. It was as if the vibration from the instruments was affecting my body, which also started to vibrate.
Then, when the arabic musician started to sing a song from a forgotten era, it was as if I was traveling back in time, thousands of years. The music took me on a trip in time and space. It was vibrating and moving.

At one time he played a song which was rather sad and I cried one tear. Then again, he played a happy song and I smiled with my whole face. He also let the audience participate in his music by repeating the mystical words he was singing, and then moving our shoulders they way he did. As time went by, my whole body and soul was merged in this oriental vibration of sounds. My head was not longer ruling over my body, my soul was transfered into this amazing rhytm. I felt like dancing although I was sitting down.

After the concert I walked over to the oriental musician to ask if he was going to hold any more concerts. First thing he did when I approached him, he hugged me. It was a huge, warm hug, and long.
I told him it was an amazing concert and that his music made me cry. He told me that if his music made me cry, then that was the best effect he could have wished for. Cause, if people laughed or cried, then his music had reached each and every one's heart. 

Then he told me something I will never forget. He said he saw me when he walked into the patio. He felt my heart was cold like a stone. Then after the music started he had seen me moving, and my face smiling. He felt my heart was open at the end. His music had turned my heart warm again. The effect of the music was healing my heart. 
When he said these things, I was chocked. I had never noticed him looking my way during the concert, and I never thought anyone actually could feel what I felt. He could connect to my heart, in some subtle way. That to me was something new.

After these words of wisdom, we sat down and spoke for a while. He told me I should start doing some tai chi. Which I already did at that moment. It turned out we had some more things in common. He was born in Lebanon, but spent most of his life living abroad. France is where he resides. He speaks six or seven languages, I cannot quite recall. But maybe the language he knows the best, is music. Cause music can actually be the most powerful, unspoken language people have ever known. It is an unspoken language between the hearts. No other language is needed if you have music. It can fill your soul and body with love. It can cure your heart. His name is Abaji.