Lobe den Tag

Das Jahr 2019 war eines meiner reichsten und interessantesten Jahre in diesem Jahrhundert. Ich habe viele großartige Bücher gelesen, viele Momente unerwarteter Nähe mit meinen Töchtern, mit Freunden und Fremden erlebt, Orte besucht, die ich schon oder noch nicht kannte und die sich alle wie Zuhause anfühlten. Ich habe ein Manuskript beendet, an dem ich sieben Jahre gearbeitet habe und kleine Bücher aus Gedichten und Fotos selbst gemacht. Noch in keinem anderen Jahr habe ich meine Kreativität so gelebt wie in 2019 und es war ebenfalls wie nachhause kommen.  Hier eine kleine Auswahl dessen, was ich genießen durfte: Bücher Im Frühling , Karl Ove Knausgard ( meine Besprechung ) The Museum of Innocence , Orhan Pamuk ( meine Besprechung ) Der Umweg , Gerbrand Bakker ( meine Besprechung ) Die Unruhigen Linn Ullmann ( meine Besprechung ) Der große Garten , Lola Randl ( meine Besprechung )  Winterbienen , Norbert Scheuer ( meine Besprechung ) The Cost of Living , Deborah...

Sunday morning, a   walk on the beach, little rocks under my feet, the green & the blue, sky & water, they are born anew with every sunrise, luring me into a new day, life is good. Which it is. I know it is. Yet, I can not stop thinking about the feast, we are not willing to share. How many do you hold in your arms, you perfect one? Thousands & I still love you! My love is fierce. Does your green & blue fill them with serenity, while their breath leaves your tender, watery grib? Do they feel you, promise? A life of dreams seemed almost close. (At least six humans die in the mediterranean every day. I will be here for thirteen days.) So, while collecting about 50 pieces of plastic garbage on the empty morning beach,  I feel like a steward of the earth for just a second & think about a line of poetry by Wendell Berry, There are no unsacred places.         ...

Could I hold you in my silence, where words no longer mean inner certainty, mean anything. It is this moment, caught in midair. What is, is good & the only gift, we can offer each other, is to let go of every word - a prison, unable to catch the inner landscape, vast like the mesa, the ocean. A million words can never say, what I want to tell you. Can never say, what I want to tell you. (c) Susanne Becker

„…and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.“ Mary Oliver I am home from my first writing residency with other artists. In Herekeke , three years ago, I was alone with Miss Lilly and my endlessly talkative mind. There were also the mesa, the sunsets, the New Mexico sky, the silence and wonderful Peggy Chan, who came by once a day. She offers this perfect place for artists, and I will be forever grateful to her. The conversations we had, resonate until today within me. It was the most fantastic time, I was given there, and the more my time in Spain approached, I pondered second thoughts: Should I go? Could I have a time like in Herekeke somewhere else, with other people? It seemed unlikely. When I left the airport in Almeria with my rental car, I was stunned to find, that the andalusian landscape is so much like New Mexico. Even better, because, it has an ocean too. I drove to Mojacar and to the FundacionValparaiso ...

A few days ago, I finished Amanda Palmer's book The Art of Asking . It is not written too well. The text is not really one piece, but many many single pieces, sewed together a bit randomly, I felt, while reading. Though, they all point in the same direction. The language is not special, or especially good. It is the kind of language, simple, in which people talk about this and that. All this was pretty much clear from the start. She is not a writer. But she is an artist with a message. This message is the point of the entire endeavour of her book. To bring across a certain point. The message is something like this: You deserve to be loved. You deserve to be supported. You deserve to go out there and ask for love and support. You  might be surprised, how much of it you get. Even from strangers. Even from friends. The message is also: create as many random acts of kindness and love along your life path, as you possibly can. So it is a double message in my eyes: ask for what you ...

Gestern schenkte mir eine Freundin ein Buch zum Geburtstag, nachträglich. Ich hatte dieses Buch bereits, was sie nicht wissen konnte und was auch keinerlei Problem darstellt. Denn sie kaufte es bei den Lieblingsbuchhändlerinnen und da darf ich es umtauschen. Sie schenkte mir übrigens Motherhood von Sheila Heti. Ich habe dieses Buch vor ein paar Monaten gelesen und auch gemocht, aber nicht so, dass ich darüber schreiben wollte. Der Grund ist, glaube ich, dass ich Kinder habe. In dem Buch geht es aber eigentlich darum, die Entscheidung zu treffen, ob man als Frau überhaupt Kinder bekommen sollte. Ich konnte für viele Punkte ihrer Befragung des Lebens sehr große Sympathie entwickeln. Andere schienen mir wie aus einer Welt, die ich für immer verlassen habe. Denn ich habe mich längst entschieden und bin Mutter. Egal, was ich tue, meine Kinder und deren Interessen, deren Wohlergehen, werden immer im Zentrum meines Befindens sein. Nie wieder werde ich vor der Frage stehen, ob mein Leben b...