A Magnetic Attraction – Two Parts of a soul

She had been running around for a very long time now. The sun had slowly disappeared from the blue sky and had submerged the entire world into a warm, red light. The hot days of summer were over by now, there were only a few weeks left before autumn would set it. And as soon as that was happening, they would have lots of cold, rainy days which would make the people in town feel less happy with their life and the decisions they were making every single day.

Although this was not about to happen for some time, the girl already could feel how her heart was more and more enclosed by coldness. It slowly crept into her body, constantly moving until it had reached her heart and made her completely numb. Maybe this would be better than going on like this. Eventually she would not be suffering from pain any longer; eventually she could live in peace. Unless she was unable to feel peace as well then. But even that seemed like a more sufficient solution to the question where her life was going to lead her, compared to the loneliness that made her feel like she could not breath, could not live. He had been the most important part of her life and had made every single day feel just wonderful. When he had not been with her, he always had left little presents or things that reminded her of him whenever she felt lonely. With his broad smile and his beautiful eyes he always cheered her up and got problems out of her mind for quite some time.

And now he was gone. A young car driver had not paid attention to the road he was driving on, instead he had been busy talking to his blonde girlfriend on the seat next to him. Funny what you remember about days like this one, days that change your life completely. The driver’s girlfriend had been blonde, her face was covered in black streaks of mascara that kept getting bigger. She claimed it had been her fault. That the car would have stopped in time if she had talked less and not insisted that her boyfriend paid attention to what she was saying. The car had hit the boy with full speed and made him fly through the air before landing on the ground and laying still on the asphalt as if he was sleeping. Only the unusual angle of his right leg had indicated that he was not, that he simply could not be. After a few moments of complete silence the first people started to cry, then a few started to scream and point at the body in the middle of the street. Within minutes a crowd had gathered around, discreetly mumbling to each other about what had been happening and what should be done now.

The girl had been walking down the street, planning to run a few errands before going back home and preparing dinner for her boyfriend. They had not been seeing each other for a few weeks, because he’d had to study a lot. One day he was going to be a doctor and help people who were in physical pain. It was what he wanted to do. This was right.

And now this was not going to happen. Instead she had to stand on the street and watch the emergency doctor put a cover over her boyfriend’s body and respectfully step backward. The boy didn’t get a chance of proving how good a doctor he could be. So maybe it was now her turn to become someone respectable enough for the both of them. His love was the only thing that stayed with her despite of what had happened.

She knew exactly how he had been feeling about her – so many times they had stayed in bed together and had talked about their feelings while they couldn’t escape from each other. That had always been a little joke between the two of them – they couldn’t run off so easily when they were lying next to each other like this, holding hands. So this always was the right time to tell each other how they truly felt. Numerous times he had said the three words that bring a smile to everybody’s face whenever they hear it. At first she was reluctant to accept these words, almost being unable to believe that a beautiful person like him could enjoy spending time with her, but he really did. And he convinced her to believe in him and in their love. This feeling of being loved was now stuck in her mind and nothing in the entire world could get it out of there.

Sadly she twisted the golden ring on her finger. He had given it to her on her last birthday and told her to take care of it. One day, he said, when maybe they had drifted apart, the ring would still remind her of him. Their hearts would always be calling for each other and one day they would be together again. Forever this time. The metallic ring was a sign of love without an end. Only they knew where it had started.

Days ran by, weeks maybe. She didn’t know and she didn’t care either. The pain in her head was omnipresent and made her feel and think about nothing but sadness. Every day she got up and thought of him. She cleaned the house and thought of him. Whenever she managed to eat something, she thought of him. And his face was the last thing she saw before she exhaustedly fell asleep after a long day.

Something big was missing in her life and she knew exactly what it was. Probably she was missing in his new life up there now, too. After these years she knew him so well that she could tell if he was thinking about her, even if his body was not here anymore. This was what happened – he was lonely, just like her. They needed to be together, without each other they were not complete, but only shadows of themselves.

____________________________________________________________

People in town were shocked to experience two accidents like this in such short time’s notice. First a young man had been hit by a car and now a girl had died, too. She had been a little younger than him and rumors were that they had been in love. People figured that she had not been strong enough to fight and to live. After this had been declared, they moved on. Nobody knew that she had left the earth because she didn’t want him to be lonely any longer. They did not know that their hearts belonged with each other for eternity, like two parts of a magnet. Now they were complete again. They had everything, except for the ring that was put on her grave, right next to his. It had helped them to find each other and now it watched over them. Forever.

The girl raised by hedgehogs

When I was little, my mother used to tuck me in bed and then tell me a little story instead of just choosing a random book and reading pieces of it to me. She often invented stories about  kids like me, exploring the world and happily coming home again after some incredibly exciting trips I would never dare to go on. But sometimes she would tell me something that was true – something that had really happened somewhere in the world.

One of those stories was about a little girl about my age who had grown up in a very unusual environment: as a little baby she had been abandoned by her parents who were too young and irresponsible to take care of her. They just brought her to the woods and then,when nobody was looking, dropped her in a pile of leaves and simply left her alone. Fortunately she soon was found by a group of hedgehogs that was searching for insects they could eat – something rather unusual as hedgehogs usually are loners! But this time they were in a group and they were crawling through the forest when they suddenly heard a creature crying. When they carefully apporached it, they found this little baby girl in the middle of all those leaves, crying and crying. The hedgehogs didn’t know what to do – this was none of their business, nevertheless there was no way they could leave her there on her own. After a short consultation, that must have sounded like an accumulation of grunts and squeals to the human ear, they had decided to stay together for a while and take her with them. This poor little thing had been abandoned once, it shouldn’t happen a second time. So one of the elder hedgehogs carefully and slowly crawled towards the girl and nudged her with its cold, wet nose. It nudged her again and again, until she would stop weeping and look at it, eyes wide open. The girl had never seen anything like this before and her fear turned into curiosity very soon. She had nothing to lose and so she got on her legs and arms (a task she accomplished after a few tries) and followed the little mammals to what was about to become her new home. This was where she should grow up, surrounded by small animals who felt sorry for her, although she obviously was none of their kind.

Years went by and the little girl grew up, still surrounded by her animal family, which now mostly consisted of new members. The old hedgehogs had died gradually, but not without giving birth to new ones, who now grew up with a human and not being uncomfortable with it at all. All their life they’d had a sister who was taller than them and who didn’t have the spines that enclosed most parts of their bodies. They didn’t care that she was of different looks, because she belonged to them and was a part of their community. This meant that they were teaching her how to survive in this dangerous wourld, just like they taught every other little hedgehog who was new to the forest.

Her education included the fast walking on her legs and arms, something she had to practise a long time before she had completely mastered it, and different sorts of protection in case one of their animal enemies apporached them. She learned that a good way to protect herself was coiling up and waiting for their enemy to leave – which worked fine with the hedgehogs, as their spines were like a shield for them. The girl didn’t have any spines, which made this action look useless, but this was how she learned it. In addition, to her it looked like it was working, because she wasn’t hurt by owls or other creatures once.

She lived like all the other hedgehogs – played in the woods and explored different parts of it. One day she had been crawling around there for a long time anf suddenly found herself at a place she had never seen beore. The unfamiliarity scared her and she could not help but shed a few tears sitting there in the grass. Ifd she had been raised by other humans, whoad taught her to speak, she would have been abe to cry for help and for her family, but no one had ever taught her to articulate by using words – she didn’t even know what words were.

While she was sitting there, an eight-year-old boy strayed through the forest close to his parents’ home,being accompanied by his dog Fips, whom he had gotten for last christmas. Fips was still very yong and sometimes extremely cheeky! That day was one of the days when wouldn’t listen to anything the boy would say and so Charlie (that was the boy’s name) ended up running through the forest, calling for Fips. Suddewnlys he heard something that sounded like somebody was crying and he interrupted his search immediately to look for the child that was out there, possibly alone. He looked everywhere and finally saw who was causing this sad noise – a lttle girl with no clothes on who was lying on the ground, covered with mud.

When he carefully aporached her tto offer his help, he stepped on a twig which broke under his foot. The girl looked up and saw a big creature covered in bright colours coming towards her. She had never seen anything like this before and didn’t even notice that his skin was of the same colour as hers. All she could see was this huge creature who was slowly coming closer and closer and fnially stopping right in front her . Instinctively she coiled up to a ball, hoping that he would leave her alone and look for another victim. Little did she know that he was only there to help her!

Charlie looked at the girl confusedly. He couöldn’t understand why she would act like this instead of talking to him. So he mustered up the courage to make the first step and asked if she needed help. The girl looked up, confused because the creature had not left, but was still standing there and making sounds that sounded like squeals to her. She wondered was he was up to, but wasn’t scared anymore. Something in that creature made her feel that he wasn’t going to hurt her. Slowly she sat up and looked at him. In the meantime he had become significantly smaller – by squatting down – and now was as big as her. With his mouth widened he stretched out one of his front legs and held it under her nose. Then his mouth opened and even more of these squealing sounds came out of it. They sounded funny and the girrl decided to try that as well soon. He had already understood that this was not an ordinary girl, but someone special. So he held up his hand again and this time the girl touched it with hers. It was a quick, shy touch, yet the boy’s eyes filled with tears, without him being able to explain why. This moment was magical and he swore not to let her go ever again.

From this day on they would often meet in the forest, just sitting together and teaching each other things. Both children now belonged to both worlds – the human one and the animal one. Still, the girl never gave up her old life. Despite everything that had happened, her family was still in the woods and consisted of prickly, small animals who didn’t lose a community member, but gained a new one instead.

I don’t really know if this story is true, but my mother ensured me it has really happened.

Once upon a time.

 

Oslo!

Am letzten Wochenende bin ich aus meinem Urlaub in Oslo zurückgekommen – losgefahren sind wir genau eine Woche nach dem schlimmen Massaker dort. Vor dem Dom war zwar eine riesengroße Gedenkstätte mit einem Blumenmeer und es waren ein paar mehr Polizisten dort als gewöhnlich (vermute ich), doch ansonsten lief die Stadt eigentlich schon wieder auf Normalbetrieb. Es gibt dort unheimlich viel zu sehen und auch zu genießen – hier einige Eindrücke von dieser wunderschönen Stadt!

30 Days Song Challenge – Day 30

Und da ist er, der letzte Tag der 30 Days Song Challenge. Im Laufe des letzten Monats habe ich mich oft durch meine Musikbibliothek geklickt und bin mehr als einmal auf Songs gestoßen, die ich gar nicht mehr so auf dem Zettel gehabt habe. So wie auch den heutigen, denn das Motto lautet Day 30 – your favourite song at this time last year

Mich zu entscheiden, war nicht ganz einfach. Um bei der Wahrheit zu bleiben, hätte ich ja wieder Heimat nehmen müssen, weil das nunmal mein 24/7-Lieblingssong ist. Und eigentlich wäre es ja auch eine schöne Idee, die Challenge mit diesem Song beginnen und auch abzuschließen.

Ein anderer Song, den ich vor einem Jahr auch sehr gerne mochte, ist Black Red or Green von Coshiva, einer österreichischen Singer/Songwriterin. Die habe ich im Juli letzten Jahres zum ersten Mal live gehört, beim Ducksteinfestival hier in Hamburg. (An das werde ich mich sowieso immer erinnern, weil ich noch nie bei einem Open Air die ganze Zeit ruhig im strömenden Regen gesessen habe…war aber toll!) Ihr Song hat mir gut gefallen und belegt somit einen guten zweiten Platz bei meinem Lieblingssong-um-diese-Zeit-in-letztem-Jahr-Ranking.

Nichtsdestotrotz ist mein Lieblingssong im letzten Jahr um diese Zeit eindeutig Heimat gewesen. Deswegen, und um die Challenge hiermit feierlich zu beenden, noch einmal das Video zu Heimat.

30 Days Song Challenge – Day 29

Der vorletzte Tag der Challenge… und dieses Mal ein Motto, das mein Gedächtnis auf Hochtouren bringt. Nämlich folgendes: Day 29 – a song from your childhood

Songs aus meiner Kindheit gibt es viele…allerdings erinnere ich mich an viele schon nicht mehr. Einen weiß ich allerdings noch ganz genau – und sogar noch eine Situation, die ich damit verbinde. Nämlich einen meiner Geburtstage, bei dem wir Stoptanz gespielt haben. Zu diesem Lied. Ich fand es damals schon sehr schön und muss sagen, dass es mir auch heute eigentlich noch echt gut gefällt.

30 Days Song Challenge – Day 28

Mit gehöriger Verspätung kommt jetzt auch mein drittletzter Post zur 30DSC ins Haus geflattert.Dieses Mal zu dem Motto Day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty

Dieses Motto ist mal wieder eines dieser Undurchsichtigen, bei denen ich nicht so recht weiß,was ich davon halten soll. Aber gut. Ein Song, bei dem ich mich schuldig fühle. Da entscheide ich mich für einen wunderschönen Song, den ich auch mal im Schulchor gesungen habe – das dürfte jetzt so 5 bis 6 Jahre her sein. Beim Anhören bekomme ich sofort ein Stück weit ein schlechtes Gewissen. Hört und entscheidet selbst, ob ihr es auch so seht.

30 Days Song Challenge – Day 27

Langsam nähern wir uns aber wirklich dem Ende. Heute ist schon der viertletzte Song an der Reihe, danach folgen logischerweise nur noch drei weitere. Das Motto diesmal? Day 27 – a song you wish you could play

Hm, bei diesem Motto hätte ich wieder Heimat nehmen können, da ich diesen Song sehr, sehr gern als Prüfungslied genommen hätte – aber ich habs leider nicht rechtzeitig hinbekommen, weswegen ich mich ja noch umentschieden habe (siehe Day 26). Ein weiterer Song, den ich gerne einmal selbst würde spielen können, ist How to Save a Life von The Fray. Diesen Song mag ich schon seit einigen Jahren sehr gerne und würde mich dazu auch einmal selbst begleiten wollen. Nur fehlen mir dafür die Kenntnisse… also noch. Kann man ja vielleicht irgendwann ändern, ich muss mich mal umschauen. Bis dahin aber hier schon einmal der Song, inklusive der Klavierbegleitung, an die ich mich noch nicht gewagt habe.