Colorful World

Some of you may have noticed that things have been a little quieter on my blog lately. One of the reasons for that is that I took some time off. First, I went to Berlin, and one week later, I attended Festival-Mediaval.

I came back from Berlin with an incredible number of impressions. Impressions that could hardly have been more different from one another.

On the one hand, in Berlin you see people who obviously have no place to call home. People sleeping on the streets or asking for money. You encounter situations that stay with you and make you wonder what must have happened for someone to reach this point in their life.

In the middle of the day, for example, I saw a man outside an S-Bahn station shaving his head, seemingly completely unfazed by the crowds of people passing by.

On another night, a young man on the train asked for money. He said that, in his current condition, he did not know whether he would even survive until the next day.

In situations like these, I am reminded again and again of how helpless I sometimes feel.

Not because I do not want to help or because I am fundamentally unable to help, but because my options in that particular moment are so limited.

Of course, I can give someone one euro. Or ten euros. I can buy them something to eat or offer a little support for a brief moment. But at the same time, I know that this does not solve the underlying problem.

And even what I can offer professionally is often of little help in situations like these. I cannot simply recommend my counseling and coaching services to someone when I know that they may have neither the financial means nor reliable access to the internet.

That hurts me every time.

I can keep walking. These people stay behind.

And then, during that same trip, there was a completely different world.

My sister, my son and I went to a concert.

People of completely different ages had come together there. They listened to the same music and were simply happy.

My nine-year-old son was just as naturally a part of that evening as a 71-year-old woman who had accompanied her grandchild to the concert.

It did not matter how old someone was, what they looked like or what their background was.

For that moment, everyone in the room was connected by one thing:

Music. 🎼🎶

I experienced exactly the same feeling again one week later at Festival-Mediaval.

For my son and me, this medieval and music festival is one of the highlights of every year. And every time, it feels a little like coming home.

Like entering a small village where everyone is free to be who they want to be, connected through music and shared interests.

People of all ages come together there: singles and families with children, people with and without disabilities, and people with completely different lives and backgrounds. Some arrive in elaborate medieval clothing, while others simply wear their everyday clothes. What someone does for a living, how much money they have, how they live or what they look like does not matter. Nobody has to fit a particular image in order to be part of it.

You simply belong.

And that is exactly what connects the two events I attended over the past few weeks: the concert in Berlin and Festival-Mediaval.

At the concert in Berlin, the singer also spoke on stage about how every one of us is right just the way we are.

We should not allow the world around us to make us bend ourselves into something we are not when we feel right as we are. We should not let anyone convince us that there is something wrong with us simply because other people may see things differently. And everyone should be free to love whoever they love. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💜

I find that message incredibly important.

However, there is something I would like to add.

If we ourselves feel an inner desire to change something for the better, then change can be a good thing, too. If, for example, we are living a lifestyle that harms us or we are unhappy with our current situation, it can be both right and important to choose a different path.

That does not mean that there is something wrong with us as human beings.

It simply means that there may be circumstances or habits in our lives that are not good for us and that we are allowed to change.

The people I encountered on the streets of Berlin are not wrong. But their current circumstances may be harmful to them and may be something they themselves would like to change.

We are allowed to grow. 🌱

We are allowed to question things.

We are allowed to leave old paths behind and try new ones.

But we are just as free to keep the things about ourselves that others might find unusual.

Not everything that is different is wrong. Quite the opposite. It is precisely because we are all different and accept one another as we are that something like what I experienced at the concert or at Festival-Mediaval can exist: a colorful and diverse group of people in which every single person is part of the whole and reflects another facet of life.

Not everything that can be changed needs to be changed.

You are allowed to change if you feel that a change would be good for you. And if you need support along the way, I am of course happy to be by your side. 🤗

Because I am back from my vacation now, and perhaps this is exactly the thought I brought home with me:

We are allowed to be who we are.

I am glad you are here and that you found your way to my page. 🌸