Pressemitteilung 2011, Buchbeschreibung in Bewusstsein.net
Pressemitteilung 2010 -Rezension von Michael Gienger. Newsletter Dezember 2009
leider erst jetzt im Mai 2010 entdeckt.
|
10 _______ BUCHTIPP: WENN
DU ZU VIEL FÜHLST
In diesem Zusammenhang möchte ich abschließend noch auf ein sehr empfehlenswertes Buch hinweisen, das ganz gut zum o.g. Larimar paßt und sich u.a. auch der "Steinfühlsamkeit" widmet. Die Autorin Jutta Nebel zählt zu den "Hochsensiblen Persönlichkeiten" (sog. "HSPs"), Menschen mit sehr, sehr feinen Antennen sowohl für Sinnesreize, Wahrnehmungen, Stimmungen und Atmosphären ihrer Umgebung, als auch für Eindrücke eigener Erinnerungen, Vorstellungen und Gedankenwelt. In ihrem Buch nimmt Jutta Nebel die Leser durch Anekdoten und Erlebnisse ganz behutsam mit hinein in diese Welt der hochsensiblen Wahrnehmung und reflektiert damit den Fluch und den Segen, den eine solche Begabung mit sich bringt. Dabei finden sich etliche Themen, die hochsensiblen Menschen bekannt sein dürften: In der Kindheit nicht verstanden zu werden, der eigenen Wahrnehmung zu mißtrauen, Schwierigkeiten im Beruf und sozialen Miteinander, Entscheidungsschwierigkeiten, Belastungen durch das Stadtleben und im Gegensatz dazu eine innige Beziehung zur Natur - und nicht zuletzt psychosomatische Erkrankungen. Doch Jutta Nebel zeigt auch Lösungen, wie es trotzdem gelingen kann, mit beiden Beinen auf dem Boden des Alltags zu stehen und diesen erfolgreich zu meistern. Allein schon dadurch, daß sie ihre Erlebnisse aus dem Blickwinkel später gewonnener Einsicht und Erkenntnis reflektiert, vollzieht sich auch beim Lesen ein Wandel und inneres Verstehen, insbesondere bei Themen, die persönlich berühren. Im letzten Viertel des Buches widmet sich die Autorin den Steinen, denen sie sich auf lebendige, einfühlsame – "steinfühlsame" Weise nähert, auch hier mit Anekdoten, Geschichten und Meditationen, aber ebenso mit nüchternen wissenschaftlichen Fakten zur Natur und Heilwirkung der Steine. Aufgrund ihrer Hochsensibilität sind Steine stets ein "starkes Erleben" für die Autorin, bei dem alte Schmerzen ebenso auftauchen können, wie Aufregung und große Begeisterung. Phänomene, die wir in der Steinheilkunde täglich erleben – aber selten nur in dieser Deutlichkeit und Intensität. Doch auch in diesem Teil des Buches finden sich Lösungen und so endet das Buch (vor dem Nachwort) mit einer wunderschönen Kennenlernmeditation für die Begegnung mit einem Stein... Insgesamt ein – wie schon gesagt – sehr empfehlenswertes Buch! Und das beileibe nicht nur für hochsensible Persönlichkeiten. Dieses Buch berührt jede/n, geht manchmal unter die Haut, bringt mitunter zum Lachen und ist sehr lehrreich. Der zweite Teil zu den Steinen war für mich als "Sachbuchautor" sehr interessant: So hätte ich das nie geschrieben und nie schreiben können – und gerade deshalb hat es mir außerordentlich gut gefallen... Jutta Nebel, "Wenn Du zu viel fühlst – Wie Hochsensible den Alltag meistern", Schirner Verlag, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-89767-382-3 10 _______ BUCHTIPP: WENN DU ZU VIEL FÜHLST |
| April 2009. Interview zum Thema Hochsensibilität in der Zeitschrift "Frau von Heute" |
Presseinformation 02/09: Bitte öffnen durch anklicken! Presseinformation 11/08: Bitte öffnen durch anklicken! |
Update: Wenn du zuviel fühlst. Wie Hochsensible den Alltag meistern
April 22nd, 2009 von 
Blazejewski
Hochsensible Persönlichkeiten - Ein Einblick
März 18th, 2009 von Blazejewski
Wie Hochsensible den Alltag meistern, direkter Link zur Besprechung
KGS Hamburg Körper, Geist und Seele
Michael Jack, Präsident des Informations- und Forschungsverbundes Hochsensibilität e.V. (gem.) war so freundlich, diese erste Rezension zu schreiben und zu veröffentlichen. Das Buch wurde in die Literaturliste des IFHS aufgenommen.
Hier ist der Link zur Originalrezension.
Hier ist der Link zur Originalrezension.
Rezension „Wenn du zu viel fühlst“ – 16.09.08
Die jüngste Erscheinung zum Thema Hochsensibilität – "Wenn du zu viel fühlst – Wie Hochsensible den Alltag meistern" – ist nach Aussage der Autorin zwei Monate nach dem Erscheinen im Juli inzwischen schon fast ausverkauft. Jutta Nebel ist Heilpraktikerin und bietet auf Hochsensible zugeschnittene Beratung an. Der Schirner-Verlag hat dem IFHS freundlicherweise ein Rezensionsexemplar zur Verfügung gestellt.
Von einer Zweiteilung des Buches zu sprechen ist fast eine Untertreibung; treffender wäre die Aussage, dass man es mit zwei Werken zu tun hat, die aufgrund der thematischen Nähe in einem Band zusammengeführt wurden. Der erste Teil – 130 Seiten – enthält sozusagen 'allgemeine Ausführungen' zum Thema Hochsensibilität, der zweite Teil macht den Leser mit einem anscheinend wichtigen Teil des Lebens der Autorin vertraut: Steine und ihre Auswirkungen auf das menschliche Befinden.
Der 'allgemeine Teil' des Buches ist völlig anders, als man es aus der einschlägigen Literatur gewohnt ist. Wir finden keine breite allgemeine und abstrakte Beschreibung des Phänomens Hochsensibilität und die Darstellung einiger der mannigfaltigen Erscheinungsformen. Vielmehr begleiten wir die Autorin auf einem Stück ihres Weges des Reframings ihrer Vergangenheit: die Neubewertung des zum Teil vor Jahren Geschehenen im Rahmen des gesamten Lebensflusses im Lichte der neugewonnenen Selbsterkenntnis.
Mittel der Wahl sind kleine Geschichten, die Jutta Nebel im Laufe der Jahre, wie sie in ihrem Vorwort schreibt, ohne besondere Absicht aufgezeichnet hat und nun von ihr zusammengestellt wurden. In der kleinen Einleitung berichtet sie auch sehr konkret, wie sie auf das Thema Hochsensibilität stieß, was sie dabei empfand und anschließend tat, und wie plötzlich, wie sie sagt, 'alles einen Sinn ergab'.
Jede kleine Geschichte hat eine weibliche Protagonistin – irgendwann wirkt es witzig, dass jede einen anderen Namen hat, obwohl doch die Autorin nach eigenem Bekenntnis die heimliche Heldin ist – die in einer spezifischen Lebenssituation steht oder ein prägendes Erlebnis hat. Jede kurze Episode wird in einen Kommentar eingebettet, in dem teils mythische (schamanische), teils naturwissenschaftliche Interpretationsansätze, Erklärungen und weiterführende Gedanken ergänzt werden.
Die verarbeiteten Themen sind HSPs wohl vertraut: das Nichtverstandenwerden in der Kindheit, Misstrauen der eigenen Wahrnehmung, innige Beziehungen zur Natur, unstete Arbeitsverhältnisse trotz/aufgrund eines hohen Perfektionsstrebens, Schwierigkeiten mit dem alltäglichen informellen sozialen Miteinander, Herausforderungen der autonomen Urlaubsgestaltung, Schwierigkeiten, spontan zu handeln bzw. Entscheidungen zu treffen, die Belastungen des Großstadtlebens und – man möchte sagen: selbstverständlich – auch das Auftreten psychosomatischer Symptomatik bzw. Erkrankungen. Ein Tipp sei an dieser Stelle verraten: Nebel meistert stupide, monotone Arbeit, indem sie sie als Meditation begreift.
Der erste Teil des Buches endet mit ein paar etwas abstrakteren
Erörterungen: Ist ein Trauma Ursache für HS, oder wird sie doch
vererbt? Nebel fasst Varianten bekannter Tipps knapp zusammen, unter
anderem auch zu Ernährung oder zur Meisterung diverser
Lebenssituationen wie etwa des Antretens einer neuen Arbeitsstelle.
Im zweiten Teil des Buches – 44 Seiten – macht uns die Autorin mit einer Komponente ihres Lebens vertraut, die etwas exotisch anmuten mag: Steinfühlsamkeit. Nebel äußert sich zu der (Heil-)Wirkung verschiedener Gesteinstypen und berichtet von ihren Erfahrungen mit diversen Steinen.
Im zweiten Teil des Buches – 44 Seiten – macht uns die Autorin mit einer Komponente ihres Lebens vertraut, die etwas exotisch anmuten mag: Steinfühlsamkeit. Nebel äußert sich zu der (Heil-)Wirkung verschiedener Gesteinstypen und berichtet von ihren Erfahrungen mit diversen Steinen.
Dem Rezensenten wird ab und an quasi vorgeworfen, ein sehr
'verkopfter', geradezu kalter Zeitgenosse zu sein. Ein klares
Kontrastprogramm zu dem daraus folgenden, eher kognitiven Zugang zum
Phänomen der Hochsensibilität ist Jutta Nebels Buch, das damit eine
Marktlücke zu treffen scheint. Trotz der notwendigen Reflexion und
Analyse ist sie mit Herz bei der Sache, bekennt sich offen zu einem
Weltbild mit mystischen Einsprengseln, steht aber trotzdem – soweit
Hochsensible das überhaupt können – mit beiden Beinen im Leben.
Die Charakterisierung "Standardwerk" trifft es sicher nicht, dieses
Attribut ist aber auch nicht Absicht der Autorin. Vielmehr hat das Buch
Potenzial, HSPs einen Zugang zum Thema zu eröffnen, die von einem
nüchternen Approach eher abgeschreckt sind. Nicht unterschätzen sollte
man auch, wie hilfreich ganz konkrete Beispiele sein können.
__________________
Informations- und Forschungsverbund Hochsensibilität e.V. (gem.)
www.hochsensibel.org
Kundenrezensionen von Amazon
Rezension Zeitschrift: Bewusst Sein November 2008
Kundenrezensionen von Amazon
|
3 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Kurz und bündig...und Steinfühlsamkeit, 6. September 2008
Und die Ratschläge helfen mir jetzt schon, unerträgliche Situationen klein zu halten! Danke für dieses warme herzliche Buch! Die Geschichten haben irgendwie alle einen Bezug zum Schamanismus. Der Wind, die Sonne, Tiere, Pflanzen und Steine begleiten die Autorin wie Helfer und vermitteln wertvolle Erkenntnisse. Ach ja, ich muß noch etwas nachschieben, was man leicht übersieht. Im Klappentext ist garnicht erwähnt, daß Frau Nebel im Zusammenhang mit Hochsensibilität wunderschöne Berichte über ihre Steinfühlsamkeit, ein Wort aus Stein und Einfühlsamkeit schreibt. Sie erklärt, wie man seinen Stein oder Kristall findet, indem man mit seinen Sinnen wahrnimmt, schaut, tastet, fühlt und sie erklärt auch, wie es kommt, daß man an einem Tag sehr viel fühlen kann, wenn man "seinen" Kristall findet und wie das am nächsten Tag schon wieder anders sein kann. Was ich ganz toll finde: Sie hat eine Kennenlernmeditation beschrieben, wie man seinen neu gefundenen, oder auch alten Steinfreund kennen- und spüren lernt. Ein echt tolles Gefühl! |
Rezension Zeitschrift: Bewusst Sein November 2008
For english talking people! Unfortunately not the whole book is translated, but to have a short look
it should be enough stuff!
Jutta Nebel,
www.Das-Wasser-des-Lebens.eu
Wenn du zu viel fühlst. Wie Hochsensible den Alltag meistern
When you are too
sensitive. How highly sensitive people manage everyday life.
Schirner Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89767-382-3
Übersetzung aktualisiert und verbessert von Tamara Kuhn, Schirner Verlag
Preface…….................................................................................................7 Trust............................................................................................................15
Emily Is Too Shy…....................................................................................19
The Wind.................................................................................................... 23
Scarab……..................................................................................................27
Findings.......................................................................................................31
It Did Not Work..........................................................................................39
Being Needed..............................................................................................50
Water Meditation........................................................................................54
Magic Wand................................................................................................58
Finding Back to Life...................................................................................64
Nils, Or the Inner Leader............................................................................73
Out of Time and Space................................................................................79
Trust.............................................................................................................86
The Beauty of Every Day’s Work................................................................92
You Bear Your Healing Inside You…..........................................................98
Where Does this Sensitivity Come from,
What Lies Behind?.......................................................................................107
“Refitting”....................................................................................................109
Stress and Hormones.....................................................................................112
General Advice….........................................................................................118
Nutrition........................................................................................................119
Stress in Everyday Life.................................................................................120
Development of Special Gifts.......................................................................123
Working Life for HSP………………...........................................................125
Celebrations and HSP………………….......................................................127
Dealing with Emotions..................................................................................133
Meditating and Encountering the Inner Child...............................................135
Introduction to Part Two................................................................................137
1. Chakra Stones.............................................................................................142
2. Home Improvement Markets and Department Stores................................145
3. Plants and Animals.....................................................................................154
4. Necklaces with Precious Stones..................................................................157
5. Power-Bracelets..........................................................................................160
6. Moqui Marbles............................................................................................162
7. Implements Made of Precious Stones.........................................................164
Springtime (or a Journey to Neptune)............................................................. 166
Merchants and Markets for Precious Stones....................................................168
Seeing and Feeling Energies............................................................................171
Meditation and Inner Journey
to Experience your Newfound Crystal or Stone..............................................177
Epilog...............................................................................................................179
Book List.........................................................................................................180
Preface
Originally, this book was intended to be a kind of storybook, a collection of stories about life and surviving. I must confess that most of the heroines in all these tales have something in common. Me!
Although they have different names, most of them are driven by the same intention: getting along with life.
I had written down all these stories somehow and somewhere, on notepads and in diaries, on sheets of paper which I found later in some drawers or maybe under the notepad and in other unbelievable places, or which I used as bookmarks. Some of the stories I had saved on my computer.
One day I had the idea to compile them all. And this happened for one reason:
I was suffering from a mental crisis and I was looking for some helpful lecture to give me comfort and to cheer me up. I visited a well-known bookshop in Darmstadt. Here I had always been successful when I was looking for material about shamanism, healing and spirituality. But on this special day I did not find what I was looking for. None of the books they had seemed to fit. Not a single book seemed to deal with my special feelings, my problems, my distress, my pain. So I had to go home and to start looking at my computer where I had saved several texts, mainly from the internet. I found one, which comforted me very much. THIS TEXT gave me what I was looking for, peace, and the chance of letting go. Seeing that this was one of my own stories, I realized that I was the one who had given me a helping hand. For this reason I started bringing all my little stories together. It should become a story-telling-book.
But this little book seemed to be without any real meaning to others, because nobody knew the intention of the writer, which was to show people how to get out of sometimes self-made traps and severe problems in life!
Nobody could know that these were stories of one person always involved with problems which do not seem to be problems to other people.
For a while this did not change, but the stories were brought together and could help me whenever I was in need of them. But one really important aspect seemed to be missing. It was the meaning.
As time went by, the amount of stories could have doubled and tripled. Life moved on, it did not become easier and it had to be mastered.
I kept asking myself why I had never ever found stories like mine. And I have been a real bookworm from childhood on. Every publication I could get about spirituality, healing, psychology, shamanism, healing with stones and crystals enlarged my private library. And also my knowledge. I felt most familiar with shamanism.
But nobody could tell me why I always felt so irritated, nervous, tired, exhausted and could bear so little. Others were doing the same things I was doing, even three times as much, and then they feel really satisfied and meet others to go to the cinema!
Why was it so difficult for me to celebrate, to let go, to enjoy life like others do? Was I wrong, was I even depressive, was I suffering from some psychological illness?
I
started studying homoeopathy, became more and more acquainted with
this subject matter and looked for a therapist working in this field.
Sometimes I got the impression of being able to feel “normally”,
of having energy, power, and strength. I made real improvements, but
I also had relapses. Once, when I was almost dying of overexcitement,
I looked up two words on the internet: highly sensitive.
One
of the first pages which appeared was: www.hochsensible.de
There I could read, although I had actually been looking for a homoeopathic medicine, for the first time about people like me who have the same problems I have had for my entire life. These pages described “highly sensitive personalities” as HSP. They gave information about people who are, like me, very often overloaded with what is happening around them. These irritations slip unfiltered into our nervous system, which causes sometimes unbearable neural excitement.
This is what the website says:
Highly sensitive personalities are persons who are very...(.synonym for highly sensitive?).... They have, because of a physiological disposition of the nervous system, an increased impressionability for irritation. This goes for outer irritations like noises and smells and pictures just as for inner ones like memories, imaginations, thoughts...
This higher capacity for irritation makes highly sensitive people get more information than “normally” sensitive people do. They can realize things like subtle changes in their environment more strongly than other people do, and so they can give valuable information to others. In the texts on the website you can find information on the advantages which result from the increased receptiveness for these irritations...
I know these advantages very well! I have described them in several of my stories. It is a wholeness of understanding situations, the ability to build, without forcing it, connections in a spontaneous way and, in consequence, to recognize the things behind.
It also means, through listening to music, looking at a picture, or watching a movie, to get into a very intense state of feelings. I myself sometimes get flashes of goose bumps when listening to music with a special emotional background attached. I can play on a piano of emotions when I listen to such special music.
Sometimes I do this when I feel stuck in my emotions. Looking at a series of pictures I can experience mood changes. Although what is in the picture is really unimportant, this can be caused just by the composition of colours. Smells of freshly mixed roughcast opens a door to my childhood, because a lot of very positive experiences are connected to this!
The opposite is the case with the smell of petrol. I get instantly travel-sick when I am sitting in a car which smells of petrol. That opens a door to my childhood too. This may happen also to normally sensitive people, but HSP get more impressions by all sorts of situations. And these impressions form a multidimensional overwhelming picture which helps to realize more, to understand more, to connect to more, and to recognize more that is behind a situation!
Quote:
In our modern culture high sensitivity may have unpleasant effects on the lives of highly sensitive people, especially when it comes to over-irritation. What may not be disturbing to others, like loud music, or strong smells, can be strongly stimulating to HSP and very stressing! Most people can just ignore loud sirens, glaring lights and strong smells (perfume, smoke) while HSP feel strongly disturbed and become overexcited. In such a status one becomes overwhelmed by the flood of information that has to be dealt with.
Because of the higher irritation HSP get tired and exhausted more easily, and so it is very important to find opportunities to regenerate oneself...
These aspects are also very well-known to me. I recognized myself in this text and started to see a bit of hope. So I am not so strange? Am not extraordinary, not wrong? There are more people like me?
But why?
And before my typical circle of thoughts could start in my mind, I found the a page about Highly Sensitive Persons and a book.
There I could finally dive deeper into the matter, ordered the book and read it in two days, in two very revealing days, where laughing and crying were very close together, where I was wondering if the author had known me from birth on. I recognized myself in this book so much that it sometimes really hurt.
And from this point on my story telling book started to make sense.
These are all stories of a highly sensitive person. I wish people to find themselves in these stories like I did in this book I read. People who are desperate, like I had been all the time, on the way to find themselves...
To know that one is not sick but just different, and especially that one is not alone in this condition and with this gift, is a really big relief!
I am going to start with a story which goes way back into my childhood times. I invite you to read and feel. If you experience some resonance while reading it, maybe you do not need the explanations anymore.
Was dahintersteckt...What is behind it
She never was a wild child, never. She rather seemed more adapted, but very sad and she was often weeping. Her mother always told her: Why don’t you smile a bit, what shall people think of us?
She loved Mohrle, her black cat, which had nibbled at her birthday cake at her seventh birthday, because she was used to get the hard pieces of the cake every Sunday. This time Mohrle took the pieces herself, more daring, and thus very different from Elli.
Elli could never clearly express what she wished or didn’t wish, because she didn’t know it exactly. She was always hoping that others would tell her!
Elli got sick when her uncle Günter, who she loved because of his curls and because he wished her to comb them, when this uncle arrived with his VW-Beetle, which was reeking of petrol, to take the whole family for an excursion. She got travel-sick in this car every time.
It didn’t help to say – but she wasn’t really sure if she had said it or if they had listened to her, however, it didn’t help to say that she didn’t want to go with them. She was too young to have any idea or any chance to make a decision.
Elli had never been able to let go, she always had to keep control. Control of herself, control of circumstances, control of her wishes, feelings and reactions. She always had to function. If that was not possible and she tried to express her feelings and impressions, she just heard:
That’s just your imagination...
Put yourself together...
Don’t let yourself go...
So she always made the experience not to trust her own perception and feelings.
Elli only felt confident on safe solid ground. If someone lifted her for a surprise, she was yelling with fear!
She tried to swing, like other children did, but she got sick instantly, same situation like in the car.
She tried to enjoy sitting on a carousel – with the same result. She always tried to become a little lighter through all this, but it didn’t work. The only possibility was riding. There she felt secure, felt carried, felt sheltered. And when she fell down, she would mount the horse again.
From this time onwards, she refused to join the family for excursions.
She preferred to visit the horses.
Elli grew up, had her highs and lows in life. But there was one problem which she never lost, the fear to lose the solid ground under her feet. She still didn’t find the one important thing in life –trust!
Until that day. She was 44 years old, out of work, discouraged, and, like so often before, on a walk through her beloved nature, alone, just accompanied by the wind and a buzzard, which sailed right above her head, and the sun, stroking her cheeks.
An old lost garden, very familiar to her, offered her gifts like pears, apples, blackberries and – a swing! Today the swing was whispering to her: Come on, rest on me, swing with me!
And she dared! First very carefully, slowly, then stronger, with flying hair, with her feet right into the blue sky, all the time checking her feelings...laughing out loud, wild like a child!
For 44 years, her whole life long she had been waiting for just this moment, almost giving up hope that this moment would come.
In
this story the child emerges, the inner child.
From its point of view the story is seen and written down. My inner child that is longing to remain a child, and to act like a child even at the age of 44 or more. Highly sensitive children sense! They have lots and lots of antenna with them. They sense the feelings of all the people around them, especially those belonging to the family. They can feel what is between the parents. Problems of all kinds! There is no chance to hide them from these special children! The worst these parents can do to their children is to lie, to say: you’re just imagining this. Because the child feels with all its senses what the matter is. And when the parents refuse to tell the truth the child becomes insecure, starts to think of being wrong, its feelings being wrong, its perceptions being wrong.
It unfortunately learns not to trust its own impressions, its feelings, and its own needs. When Mom or Dad or the teacher say something, they must be right and I must be wrong will be its conclusion.
How shall such children ever trust themselves in the future? Such a child becomes puzzled. It cannot deal with the flood of information, which will overwhelm it and which seems to be so wrong (in the others’ eyes). This is so confusing that the nervous system gets overexcited. The little person starts to suppress all this incoming information.
It starts to retreat, it lives more than before in its own world and becomes very lonely. The suppressed feelings turn into a strong sensitivity and this sensitivity shows up in problems, maybe like allergic reactions, sickness on ships, in busses and cars, and on swings!
The kids get from early times onwards diagnoses of disturbed psychic abilities and disturbed behaviour.
These children naturally realize feeling much better when they are alone in nature. They are often unable to make decisions. For instance being asked if they want to take the teddy or the doll with them, they want others to decide for them. They do feel what they want, but they have learned and experienced not to trust their own feelings.
These children love animals very much, because they do not value and doubt. They are just there to be stroked and loved! And they give love unconditionally.
This story shows that one can learn to let go and trust, even when being grown up. Especially to trust one’s own feelings and observations. This is the most important thing, and one has to come to this point sooner or later!
The beauty of every day’s work
She worked in a two-man business, together with her beloved .They were together on tour doing cleaning work. This job was not so bad. Over she developed an ability to clean the steps in a kind of meditation. My teacher Michael Barnett gave me the advice “Do it as a meditation”. Wiping each step from the left to the right, breathing in, taking a step backwards, breathing out, wiping from the left...and so on.
After several times she found that she could distinguish the houses from each other by their smell. There were some places which seemed cold to her, clammy and repelling. Others, with wooden stairs, smelt warm and homelike, especially when the sun came in and melted the wax and oil, with which the steps have been treaded in all the years and years to tend them.
In art nouveau houses Martina was always fascinated by the tessellated floors which were mostly in the entrance area. These houses gave sensory effluvia of old stones, roughcast and the linoleum that covered the wooden steps. The smell of linoleum aroused scenes of her childhood. She had learned to make prints with linoleum, after having cut a picture into this material, and she could still hear and feel the sharp feather graving lines into it.
Especially in summer, when it was really hot outside, she enjoyed to work in the cellar, where she felt wrapped into the cool atmosphere. There were typical smells too, cold, wet or muddy. One could also find corners which seemed full of fungus; in other corners one could find the perfume of old apples and potatoes. She enjoyed playing this piano of senses a lot.
In winter it was always very hard to work with water. Although they had their warm water with them in the car and used good rubber gloves, always being wet and cold is not that pleasant. But the work had to be done and thanks to her habit of working in a meditative way she was always inspired by new ideas to personal growth.
Both of them shared a big passion: psychology and astrology. Moving from staircase to staircase, she asked him questions about astrology because he knew a lot about it. They started linking planetary constellations and aspects to stories of people they knew. And so they were always involved in brilliant discussions and theories.
Mostly, except for hot summer days when she enjoyed the cool air in the cellars, he did the work there, and was cleaning the yard, while she did her meditative job, wiping the step from the left to the right, breathing in, taking a step backwards, breathing out, wiping from the left...and so on.
And there she had the most fascinating ideas, they came straight into her head, after wiping the first two or three steps and he, watching her eyes, noticed that she had new ideas, thoughts, which she would tell him on their way to the next job. Thus, working times became enjoyable times and the cold seasons were to endure.
The warm days were really the better ones. They did not have to go straight from the car into the houses but could take a little time to have a little chat in the backyard with the housekeeper or play with a straying cat. They took their meal, which they had brought from home, enjoying the sun and exchanging their findings.
Once, it was Friday afternoon and they were ready to do the last job for that week. He placed the car on the backyard, filled the buckets with water and soap while she was having a little walk around the yard. She was working here for the first time, but this time she took more time to have a closer look. It all seemed to be kind of bewitched to her in a very nice way. One could say it looked sordid. The windows were hung by that kind of old curtains used by old ladies. They seemed to be very dusty.
There were flowerpots, in good condition, and little bric-a-brac figures, also dusty and bleached by the sun and the years. They seemed to be given by loving children’s hands and taken by loving mothers’ or grandmothers’ hands, standing here, speaking of a forgotten past.
In the next window there lay a fat black and white spotted cat, pressing its head against the fly screen in front of the open window, purring because pleased about the attention.
Behind this building used furniture was standing around, and a car without its licence plate. The wild flowers and the weed were growing round these objects and gave them a romantic touch. In the midst of a big town! Martina moved back into the direction where she had come from to finish her work for the day. But suddenly her eyes were caught by a corner of the yard where the wind had blown dust and leaves into a heap.
A pigeon was sitting there, not very unusual in a big city. But this animal seemed to be very weak. Martina moved slowly and gently into its direction to have a closer look. It looked like one of this grey doves one can find everywhere. But one detail was different, it wore a ring! You belong to someone and this person is waiting for you, she whispered.
The bird hardly moved. Martina took it up. The little one seemed to be very indifferent to what was happening with and around it. But it didn’t seem to be sick, because then the feathers would have been sticky, but they weren’t. Maybe you are hungry, Martina murmured and took some bread crumbs from her box.
The bird was not moving, it was not at all interested. The sun was burning down on both of them.
Ooohhh, you are thirsty, Martina added. She brought a bottle of water from the car. But where should it drink from? So she had to have an idea! And she got one! She screwed the cap from the bottle and filled it with water. That little one didn’t know what to do with it.
Once Martina had seen how young chicken can be brought to eat. One has to knock on the floor with one finger to imitate the parents’ picking. This is what she did then and put her wet finger on the dove’s beak. Now the bird understood her. It moved its head to the water and with one draught it emptied the screw-cap. The same thing happened once more. Suddenly the eyes started to shine. The bird’s and Martina’s also.
The bird now started to bring its plumage into the right order. Now the bread crumbs became interesting.
Martina had realized that in the meantime a black fat male cat was straying around their edge with hungry eyes. Maybe it didn’t want the bread crumbs so much. That meant the bird had to start flying home.
Martina stayed for a while, offered more water and food and then took the bird into her hands to say goodbye. It looked to her with clear, shiny eyes, without showing any fear. She threw it into the air, it started to fly with flapping wings, turned a round above her and choose its direction home.
Martina’s beloved had watched both of them for a while, moved away with the bucket and did his work without saying a word. When he came back to her, her shiny eyes were telling enough, there was nothing to add.
The most beautiful part of that work was the homelike feelings which developed working in these houses and backyards, where my inner child could be there. So I was able to endure the at times hard conditions.
And the best thing was learning to enjoy the work, thanks to the wise advice of my beloved teacher Michael Barnett: Do it as a meditation!
Thus I was able to block the outer irritations from penetrating me, and inside I was able to unfold and get genius ideas.
Being mindful and letting go, all in one.
The result of such processes shows every day and every moment in new ideas, new witnesses, which help me to grow.
The mindfulness shows when I see what others do not realize. The dusty charm of the backyard full of waste and grown over with weed and wild flowers reminded me of Sleeping Beauty, sleeping for a hundred years, and in the dusty windows the bric-a-brac figures seemed to emanate love.
The pigeon was the voyager in big trouble on its way home, and I have been the protector which saved it from being eaten. Just for this one time. This all fills my heart with a warm feeling of love.