It is half term and Stallie is cathing her breath. The first two months of the school year are the defenite past and once more I can state:'I love my job!' Nope, not everything stayed spotless and this included my office that isn't my office anymore due to change of plans and change of work environment all across campus. So right before dragging myself to my cool car with 4&4 traction, that will come in handy in the months to come, I filled up moving boxes with the content of my desk and cupboards. I will miss that spot where my first work memories at my cool educational workspot were created. LOL, tears, smiles, mysterious giggles, eventful encounters with students, staff and parents, hugs, pats on the shoulders and many more meaningful moments I passed there. That I will have to move now out of the basement makes me feel happy but in a way does not because I am a Capricorn and those can not always deal with change without looking back over their shoulders. It is about letting go and lookig forward. Something I do not master that quite well...yet.
Still I managed to fill up boxes in less then 5 hours and let the new 'inhabitants' move in with their drumsticks and other accessories to create some unforgetable sound memories inside of those four walls. The only way now is up and so Stallie does look forward to a new office and people as part of her work routine. It will take some time to get used to but in the end it will be fine and around Christmas I will be settled in for sure.
To patch up things mentally I am spoiling myself a bit and try to enjoy half term break imensely. Dreaming away in front of a painting by Piedro Lorenzetti or Andrea Vanni at the 'Siena' exhibition at Bozar, getting chocolate at Marcolini and marshmellows at Elizabeth, selecting Mozart music at the specialist music store 'la boîte à musique', wandering around in Brussels and burning a candle at my favorite church at the Sablon, giving into the call of the sweet La Durée macarons and filling up a carton box with biscuits made by Dandoy and before jumping back on the metro picking up a latte macchiato with extra caramel to spice up my sweet Sunday. All of this is resetting my mind and finding back my zen mode. Brussels is sometimes the best medicine to find back what I might have lost track of. That city has got a very strong effect at me and I fell unexpectedly in love with it. The love is now unconditionally and before that city will ever let me down it will have to create total havoc.
These sweet city trips also do include rides on the metro and this means that I will then fire up my iPod and take along a good read to keep me company during these solo tours all over my capital. Nope, Stallie then does not need a guidebook or some extra company to find her way around. The moment I dive into the metro I go with the flow and let Brussels decide where to take me. It is at those times that I do meet up with many people who only will visit my capital once in their life time. They stand out while I try to blend in with a spot that will only bit(e) by bit(e) give away her best kept secrets. It is a complicated city to get your head around because the first impressions of this place are so wrong. On top of it all does the majority of people of this nation do not have a very intimate relationship with it. After all, let us face it, it is not London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam or NYC. It is rather a city where nothing is what it seems and you sometimes need to take a step back and dare to walk off the trail to find what you are longing for. But the river that flows through Brussels is a deep one that once you dare to dip into it will take you to places that you will wish to revisit and I am not only talking 'chocolate' here. It goes beyond...
It is the place where I can sit down on a bench and let the world exactly do what I need to do and that is letting life go by and putting it back in the right and mental healthy perspective. I then zoom in and out whenever I wish to do so and suddenly find beauty and love all around. It is a very strong sensation that I for a while did not expect to find back. I have seen it at work in so many places but when I do stand in the middle of Grand Place my blood starts to race through my veins and when I then walk into 'La Galerie de la reine' I manage to pick up my paste and I wonder if I already blend in with the scenery.
Yes, I then take long breaks and if the sunshine is out I will be sitting outside with a panini or something else savory to nibble on while observing the life rushing by and picking up and absorbing the positive city vibes and then I start to read and fully relax. This last Sunday I finished up a book by Paulo Coelho. Now before you even think that I am a big fan of his and that I am true believer in all what he preaches or tries to let his readers audience reflect about: I am not.
Before picking up 'Aleph' at the national airport and did board for Manchester I had only read 'Veronika Decides to Die. I have to say that this read did impress me and I am even tempted to say that anyone who works with mental patients should read it. It is an eye opener and it will give you a very good insight what the mind can cause. These 300 pages are a bit different because Coelho allows you to travel along with him and this up, close and personal. I do not have any intentions to get more into it but there is one paragraph that I realy wish to share with you because these are the words that experss so well what I feel when I am in love with life and with people but because I hardly ever find the fitting words to express that intense sensation that I wish to borrow the ones of Paulo Coelho:
"I love you,' I tell her, 'I love you because all the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake, where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the earth. I love you like a river that creates the right conditions for trees and bushes and flowers to flourish along its banks. I love you like a river that gives water to the thirsty and takes people where they want to go. I love you like a river which understands that it must learn to flow differently over waterfalls and to rest into the shallows. I love you because we are all born in the same place, at the same source, which keeps us provided with a constant supply of water. And so, when we feel weak, all we have to do is wait a little. The spring returns, the winter snows melt and fill us with new energy. I love you like a river that begins as a solitary trickle in the mountains and gradually grows and joins other rivers until, after a certain point, it can flow around any obstacle in order to get where it wants. I receive your love and I give you mine. Not the love of a man for a woman, not the love of a father for a child, not the love of God for his creatures, but a love with no name and no explanation, like a river that cannot explain why it follows a particular course, but simply flows onwards. A love that asks for nothing and gives nothing in return; it is simply there. I will never be yours and you will never be mine; nevertheless; I can honestly say: I love you, I love you, I love you."
And while I am going to dive into one more La Durée Macarons I am going to leave you and try to digest these words. Do not try to hard to let them make sense because you might miss out many precious moments that your river passes by and gives you that extra sip of water you need.
PS: Like stated before I am not easy to define when it comes down to music. I love many kinds and I can totaly fall in love with music that others just detest. This one is one of these songs that I love when playing on my iPod and travel on the subway and walk around in Brussels and 'faire a nouveau connaissance' with that one city that has already given me so much and has never expected much in return. And number two is music by a local voice who is so good at expressing many sensations that I feel while I am getting lost in Brussels and then suddenly find what I desperately am after in order to function. Lara Fabian and Brussels will always go together because when I moved into the capital I did also fall in love with her voice.
