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December 18, 2017

Fairy-tale towns to Visit to Get in the Mood for Christmas. Part 1. Strasbourg and other Alsacian towns

Christmas is a time when the grey winter lights up with thousands of colours and a fairy tale is born. The Christmas fairy tale is all about the snowflakes dancing in the air, jingle bells and laughing children, the deep voice of organ and connection with each other and the divine. In Europe, there are some towns that remind you of Christmas the moment you get there because they look like having stepped out of a fairy-tale book even in summer. The first one that comes to my mind is Strasbourg.

Strasbourg at Christmas time is made of sparkling houses decorated with polar bears and deer, narrow streets covered in snow, mulled wine and delicious food. What else do you need for a perfect Christmas getaway? Good company, probably.

Strasbourg is a special town for me. I have been in love with everything French for as long as I can remember myself, and Strasbourg is the place where my first real-life rendez-vous with France happened. Alsace is the region that I was lucky to be able to see through the eyes of the local people, some of which have lived there for generations. At one of these encounters, I ended up in an old school in a little village somewhere in Alsace failing my first attempt to see Strasbourg dressed-up for Christmas.

I worked for a French company with a headquarter within an hour from Strasbourg. It was early December and the Christmas market in Strasbourg had just opened and the lights had gone on. I wanted to leave the work earlier to have enough time to see the town the evening of my departure, but I got an invitation that I couldn’t refuse.

– I want to show our house to you, we almost finished renovating one part of it. And I want you to meet my husband. I promise to drive you to Strasbourg before the market is closed so that you have time to buy some souvenirs.

Nadine was a lovely person, who made me feel welcome in France and was very helpful in the office, always patient with my terrible French. Nadine once told me that she always spends her holidays in France and never goes anywhere else. I could almost understand her. Every region of France is so different, that it feels like a different country. I felt honoured with this invitation and couldn’t refuse.

The evening started in a local pub drinking Christmas beer. That’s where I first heard Alsacian language and realised how different it is from French. I didn’t understand a single word. After that, we went to see the house that appeared to be an old school. One part of it was converted into a flat and the other parts still had school tables and chairs there. Now, after living in the UK for a while, I do understand how does it feel to live in an old house. But back then, the idea of an old building with no insulation and with the temperature inside very similar to that of the outside felt like stepping into the pages of historical novels that I loved so much. We spent the evening eating and drinking house wine with Nadine and her husband, who also appeared to be a lovely person and a true Alsacian often using Alsacian words and testing my imperfect French. But the wine and nice food do miracles, so soon we were able to communicate easily.

We didn’t get to Strasbourg until late evening, but I wasn’t upset. The encounters like this, spending time with people like Nadine and her husband, is what makes travelling a unique experience allowing to see the place through the eyes of the local people. And the other good thing that came out of this was that the first time I saw Strasbourg at Christmas, it was my honeymoon. And it was another unique experience that I remember now with great warmth.

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December 5, 2017

My 2017 in Fiction. Neil Gaiman, Elena Ferrante, Graeme Simsion and others

Do you get time to read fiction these days? In the last few years, I found myself so absorbed in non-fiction, reading mainly about psychology, neuroscience and business, that I couldn’t spare any time for fiction. And that’s knowing that a good book with a cup of good coffee is my all-time recipe for cheering up and boosting energy in any situation. When I realised that listening to audiobooks can be as much pleasure as reading the good old paper book, I opened up a bunch of possibilities for myself. Now I could listen to a book while driving, pushing a buggy or while Adrian played on the playground on his own. And when I could get a book that was narrated by an author as some of the books by Neil Gaiman, it opened up another aspect of the story allowing to see it more from the author’s perspective.

In this blog post, I do a summary of reviews of fiction books that I read in 2017. I didn’t get to read a lot of them, but after the fiction fast that I had, it looks like a good step forward to me, at least a very enjoyable one.

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October 28, 2016

Keep Calm and Drink Your Tea. A Short Mindfulness Practice for Tired Mums.

I breathe in the aroma of Christmas spices. I feel the warmth of the cup of tea, holding it with both hands. I make a sip and feel the burning bitterness on my tongue. Too hot. I almost don’t feel any taste, but the pleasant warmth is filling my body starting from the throat and going down to the tummy. I wait for the tea to cool off a bit and focus on the sensations in my body. I feel irritated and tired after an hour of trying whatever it takes to put the little one to sleep. I walked holding him, rocked on the birthing ball, sang and shooshed and now I feel the tension of my back muscles, feel the dump pain between the shoulder blades and in my neck. I feel some heaviness in the chest as well. I catch myself thinking how much work I’ve got to do while the little one is asleep and feeling guilty about taking this time to have my tea. I breathe in and out into that feeling and return my attention to the cup of tea.

I make another sip. And again I feel the warmth. It is not burning anymore and not as intensive as after the first sip. But now I can also feel the rich spicy taste of the ginger and the sweeter aftertaste of cloves and cardamom. A light feeling of contentment fills my body. I notice the vast greyness of the sky outside. “Hello, old friend!” – I greet the drizzle. “You’re going to keep us company the whole day, aren’t you?”.

I got distracted again. I return the attention to the tea and make another sip. I feel that the intensity of the irritation is going down, I feel more relaxed and even the grey sky outside doesn’t bother me much. Another thought raises its head: “Shall we go and jump in the paddles when Adrian wakes up? He’s going to enjoy it for sure”. I return my focus to the tea again and do another sip.

What I tried to model may be called an open awareness meditation during the process of drinking tea. I could write that I lit some scented candles, played some Tibetan bowls sounds and sat to meditate in the lotus pose. I would love to be able to do that, but it’s a luxury that the busy mum very rarely has time to enjoy. On the other hand, being present while doing the small things during the day, observing our thoughts and feelings, and bringing awareness to the sensations in our body is possible even with a restless toddler jumping around.

And this is what the Mindfulness Moments section of my blog is about – short practices and meditations that can easily be integrated into the daily life of a busy mum. Choose the ones that you like and modify them to suit your daily lifestyle. While doing the practice, it’s important not to get dragged away with the train of thoughts. When the thoughts arise (and they will arise, that’s how our brain works), just make a note of them and bring the focus back to your breath, sensations in the body and feelings. If you feel guilty for abandoning a pile of laundry waiting for you or you feel irritated that you can’t concentrate, once again this is just what you feel at this moment, something to note and something not to judge yourself for.

Try to do this short practice for at least a week and notice how you feel after it.

Ready to have some tea together? Or maybe coffee or smoothie or whatever you drink? When you are ready, just keep calm and drink your tea. Do you feel better now?