๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ |ย ๐ฎ๐ด |ย ๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ
i like thinking and making art
๊ง ๐ช๐ตโ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๊ง
my sideblogs
ใprettyleelasights: amateur photography
ใprettyleelastitches: my embroidery journey
i came here out of a need to find a new digital home for my thoughts & art that doesn't require me to play the influencer-game. after quitting social media for a while, i have now accepted that i'm a child of my age who's brain is simply wired to share and express itself online. i'm afraid to admit i don't feel entirely whole without a digital space to call my own...
so here i am - thanks for joining the ride! โโ
whatever i post, please stay kind. there's enough space & love to hold all sorts of different opinions & emotions โฅ
what i'm into and what you might find on this blog can probably be summed up by saying, i'm curious about all things of the psychological dimension. i love philosophising about spirituality & religion, mental health & disorders, about self-growth & how to live a wiser life.
to state the obvious: i think a lot.
luckily, i've started doing a lot more too, as my curiosity extends to the creative realm. i personally create mainly written, painted and embroidered art, and i hope to share lots of it with you :)
i'm also a rather fierce bookworm and love taking snapshots with my little old digicam.
i hope you find something that sparks joy in you โโ
all the love โฅ
if youโre the very curious type, here's some more snippets about me:
probably got ADHD - diagnosis incoming, i will update you
officially buddhist yet wouldnโt necessarily call myself a buddhist
used to be an intense Belieber (and i still only wish him peace & love โก)
i visited a beautiful church in the middle of Innsbruck (AT) recently.
they had a mailbox next to one entrance for gratitude notes. at every liturgy of the eucharist (apparently a gratitude/thanksgiving mass), they would read out one or two of the submitted notes to all the churchgoers.
i think it's a lovely idea, plus i'm happy to take every opportunity to voice some gratitude :)
so i decided to join the fun โโ
"i'm grateful for all the difficulties i have faced in the past and through which i was able to learn. for my eating disorder overcome, my drug addiction shed, for relationships lost and heartache borne, for my unnerving insomnia, my existential suffering. i am grateful that i eventually faced all those with courage; it brought more joy, deep trust and holistic love for myself and all beings into my life. i am now a happier, more peaceful human. amen."
(i realise this is sounding a bit over-the-top and weirdly final. as if i'd overcome all the difficulties to arise in my life ever & have reached my final stage of development haha i guess i did jot it down without putting much thought or time into it. i accept this is what poured out of me in that moment)
nature's really got composition down to a t.
the little decomposing one caught my eye especially - how precious to observe the different stages of its death in the very same leaf โฅ
It's as if my spiritual life has been a slow horse. I started with a lot of ambitions. I tried to gallop in the beginning, doing extensive practice here and in Asia. I was going for enlightenment. I found ecstasy, yes, bliss, mystical states, incredible insight - it all came. But all it did was wake me up to what I had to do. To be a truly happy person I had to slow the horse down, get really down into earth and make my life actually follow my values. Then after lots more meditation and inner work, I took a hundred-eighty-degree turn toward the world. Increasingly I saw how the forests, the oceans, the pandas and the krill, the biosphere depend on me as I depend on them. I became a spiritual activist. I taught it, I wrote about it, I lived it. We had some success, but then again I had to slow the horse down because my ambition had come back in a new way.
Now I understand renunciation better. It's not about monasteries and renouncing life. We're put here to learn the lessons of this human life. It is the renunciation of greed and ambition, of the self-centered ethos of our time. We're not in charge here. We need to be patient, to let our actions come from a simple and pure heart, and from the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Everything good comes from that.
- After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, by Jack Kornfield
The diversity of corn, mais maize, milho.
A glimpse into the incredible richness of Zea mays through seeds from various cultivars, reflecting the history of cultivation and selection โ from wild teosinte (4th slide) to traditional Mexican varieties and regional cultivars from across the globe.
i'm currently on a journey to exploring the latent christian in me. i was raised catholic christian very mildly and casually, and as a teen turned first to atheism, then buddhism. i actually became an official buddhist a couple years back, for several reasons but mostly because i've found deep truths and incredible solace in this philosophy.
what has recently attracted me to christianity is mainly nostalgia, and a sense that i was born into a christian country and brought up with somewhat christian norms and rituals for a reason. these are my spiritual roots, after all.
i have denied myself this fact for many years due to the dark sides of christianity - or rather, of the institution of the catholic church. we all know major atrocities have been committed, i don't need to go into further detail. but what i feel i was missing was what i perceive to be the faith's core, stripped from the additional layers it was clothed in by spiritually confused influential people and society at large.
i thoroughly believe the core of christianity is almost interchangeable with the core of buddhism - it is both a teaching of love. nothing more, nothing less. it's just different words and cultures.
(this goes for the wrongdoings of buddhism as a religious institution too, which are again almost interchangeable with those of christianity.)
having realised this, my felt need to understand the philosophy of a different culture - that often seems strange and confusing to the average westerner - has decreased significantly. i now feel that what i've been looking for has been waiting for me right at my doorstep all along, as things often do!
i'm nervous and excited at the same time to start this journey of finding my own way into the christian faith. navigating through all the superfluous rituals and the bs add-ons to what Jesus actually tried to teach will surely feel alienating and maze-like at times. but something tells me it'll be worth it. it's almost like i want to reclaim christianity, certain loving rituals and the church as a space of commune for the modern, open-minded and non-dogmatic spiritual seeker. surely thousands have attempted to do so before me, and sometimes with great success. i'm not trying to seem all special or plan to act in any major way whatsoever. i just wish to start conversations among the people in my close surroundings who might have given up on religion as a whole due to their disillusionment with certain religious practices, of the christian faith or other.
in any case: for now, all i know is that believing in and interacting with God - the One, the Universe, the unnamable Energy whatever - has made my existence a lot more colourful, joyous, ecstatic and has deeply comforted me in times of all-too-human suffering. if christianity can offer additional angles from which to look at the mystery of existence and can bring even more joy and peace to my life, my heart is wide open โก
