Small things. Curiosity. Creativity. Sharing.

Small things. Curiosity. Creativity. Sharing.

Things:

Things are just things. They come and they go while experiences and interactions stay forever - invest in experiences not in things.

You never own things. Things always own us.

(What is Freedom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZE1MmG9x6o)

What to buy for the Covid lockdown?
I don't know what you bought but I like to share what I bought. A lot of people bought tons of food and toilet paper, even the supermarkets asked to shop as usual.

 
I bought one box full of stuff which I could carry on my bicycle, because I went there by bicycle and not by car.

I got a cardboard box for free to carry my stuff and I will make a sign for my bike out of it: "Free to share. Use it. Enjoy the ride and please bring it back."

I bought some almonds, because they're pure power food. Some smoothie mixes. I bought a carrot, because it's grounding me and I can eat it on the way. An apple to remind me to eat some fruits every day. We got a pear tree at the hostel and lots of apple trees around, where I can pick some fruits for free and later I even found some strawberry trees, chestnut trees and even more apple trees. I bought some other more expensive, sustainable produced food and was a little bit upset to see that a lot of unhealthy, non small, local food was sold, while all the food I bought was almost full on stock. I bought a USB stick to remind me to save and share and look back on my stories.

Hundred grams of high quality Whittakers chocolate .........., not my favourite, because it was sold out but Craig's favourite one, a friend from Nelson, I met couchsurfing and who introduced me to this chocolate, and the favourite chocolate of a friend is great too.

Some, I love baking unicorn cookies, because I love unicorns and I even love cookies. They always make me happy and they are great to share with friends, when it's dark and cold outside, after a good adventure.

I went to the bookstore "Paper Plus", because it was one of the remaining shops open. Others bought big books to read to kill time during the lockdown. Somehow, I got really interested in a small picture book, titled Pee Wee The Kiwi (https://peeweethekiwi.co.nz/)

 with beautiful pictures and a short story you can read in 5 minutes. I actually read it in the store, but I really liked the story. It's about a little Kiwi looking for friends and meeting all the other birds, who can do things like singing beautifully, being creative and playful, can swim in the water and so on. Pee Wee the Kiwi feels always depressed and little and not worthy of anything but in the end he meets Noah the moa and all the other birds come back because Pee Wee the Kiwi was a good friend. The book is just a beautiful story about Life. A kind, little, brave Kiwi travelling and adventurous, looking for friends and a place and maybe a meaning in life. The book cost over 20$, which is quite expensive for a little book, but I was super surprised and happy when I got the book with a small little stuff Kiwi. How cool is that to get a book and I shared my book with others and got in exchange more books than I can actually read, all for free. I presented the Kiwi story in the Lighthouse and got a magazine and a Backpacker bible, which probably takes me all the lockdown to read anyways.

As a second book, I bought a pink diary. I didn't really like the colour but the cover quote and it wasn't available in another colour and not the outside of a diary matters but the inside is important. The cover quote is: Dream it! Wish it! Do it!

So I bought two books. One for reading and more important for sharing and secondly a book for writing, writing down my thoughts.

"Reading and Writing are one of the oldest forms of meditation."

Small things matter - Be Kind.

Message in a bottle

 If we read carefully and with fantasy, we can even find joy in a Maple syrup bottle.

After a long hike, I rested a night at a friend's house. In the morning I decided to make some pancakes for us, because to start the morning with pancakes is never a bad idea. The organic Maple Syrup by whole harry is pretty interesting if you think a little bit weird about it. It has three maple leaves on it in the front. They’re black, red and gold, which is the German flag, the country where I’m from. Produced in Canada, the country I love. Shipped all the way to New Zealand, the country I am right now. Harry is the nickname of my dad, which connects this bottle to my family. The text in the back is saying: “...With 65 protective antioxidants and minerals, you need to be getting this precious sap of the tree gods into everything you possibly can.” This advertisement is basically saying that GOD is in the trees and nature and you have to suck it in as much as you can. So, go out into Nature and have fun to believe, which is quite fun for me and makes it easy to believe.

But to be fair instead of a hidden message for me, it also could also just be an advertisement of a Maple Syrup company, who knows ;). But with fantasy and curiosity this maple syrup bottle is worth reading and thinking about it. It kept me entertained and if you read this with some thoughts, this message of a bottle kept you entertained as well ;).

Song: Message in a bottle, The Police (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRRSRNDuu98)

Creating Happiness at the Source

The place: In Wanaka we have a beautiful water source, where a lot of people go to get clean drinking water for free and also without a plastic bottle without going into a shop but go into nature. Before it was a meeting point. People talked. Some other people created this source nicer with stones to make it more enjoyable for others. The place gives a great view on the world in small format. A beach to play, a lake to swim or paddle, a houseboat because it was someone's dream to live there. How many of my friends told me about this houseboat and they want to be there. Funny, in the end it's just a lonely house (self isolated in a lake), the jet skies for unexplainable extra fun. The street and open field in the background going to the Aspiring NP into the pure wilderness?!.

The mountains, calling for us. The endless sky, other days you could see paragliders from here. A bird is playing and singing around me. What else do we need to dream or to enjoy?

I went on to the beach, because a day before I got inspired by stones, painted by other people in Hawea. I was thinking of doing it and another friend at the hostel motivated me when I wasn't sure anymore.

I found a nice stone and a beautiful piece of wood and took them to the beach. I started to paint, to express myself a bit. I'm not sure if it's art, if it's beautiful but it made me happy for that moment doing it. If someone likes it or throw it away. I don't care. I was reading an article about my friends Ryan and Lauren in the Lighthouse magazine, which portrayed them really good and tells a story about friends I haven't heard and would rather like to hear in person from them but it's still kind of connecting and I was happy to read their story and got inspired and felt connected a bit more. It also inspired me to write a little bit more down in my diary about my story and my thoughts.

I placed the painted stone and the wood at the source just because I think it fits and makes a few people smile and curious and also because to leave a little bit of myself in the beautiful world if I will be gone someday to keep people smile because that's all we can do and it's always the best thing to do. Connect with friends and strangers and give them some nice words and some hope and maybe even a smile and make their and our day a bit better. Later that day we built another art project out of an old beer bottle and plants as a gift for a friend. Giving away some fun, happiness and creativity.

Be happy. It's more fun!

Smile.

Music: All we do - Oh Wonder! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPGREQvK-dQ)

Find yourself, lose yourself and then find others.

Humans need humans to talk, to inspire and to motivate and small things matters. Deep inside we like to share, create, be curious, motivated, active, to think and to be social. It makes us human.

At the same time I was a little bit worried, showing some symptoms of Corona like hustle, a bit of headache etc. I wasn't worrying about myself. I'm healthy and it's just a virus, but to bring the virus to my friends in the hostel.

The same day, I got a message from a friend in Canada with some bible verses, asking me to share it. It doesn’t hurt me or anyone else and it was a request of a friend to send love into the world, so I do.

"After the war, the Israelites came to Moses and said, We counted and No One is missing (Num 31 vs 49)."

I shared it with a few friends, who were still more worried about my wellbeing than themselves. Praying for me and not for them. I went into isolation.

Two days later, I went to the source again and my project was gone but while it was there it made some people happy and smile, that matters. I found it, thrown away and put it up again further away from some humans, who might not like it but still visible for people, who might have a view into the beauty of nature to find a little surprise which hopefully makes them smile!

A birthday surprise by an unknown friend

My friend Lauren celebrated her birthday and we were planning to go SUPing, but actually it's not really fun with just one SUP and the other just watching. Thank GOD (Ryan and Lauren are my friends of the Christian Lighthouse group in Wanaka), Ryan found a kayak from some very kind people who put the kayak out for sharing. Just free to share without knowing us at all, just trusting us! What a beautiful, kind present of humanity:

 "God wants you to be in peace and enjoy his beautiful creation. This kayak is free to use, just put it back.

 God loves you." Thank you God for a beautiful day.

Song: Hurra, die Welt geht unter! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTPGpBBwt1w)