Happy New Year to all of You!
And I only have a small clue of who “all of you”‘ are. To the ones who have given me direct feedback, on this blog or on Facebook, I am very grateful. It always cheers me up. I can’t help but look into the statistics now and then – my curiosity! – and then I see a world map with some countries lit up in blue. The blue stands for who’s read (or clicked on) the blog. There are readers everywhere around the globe. And then I get more curious. Who are they. Who are you?
In fact it doesn’t matter who you are. I want to thank you for reading what I write. I started this blog in the beginning of 2017 and have no regrets. I love doing this. It is a perfect way of exploring my creativity. All the things I like to do come together here in this blog.
I am not someone who tells her life story to a stranger or even to a someone I know well. But I am a good listener – for some reason, people like to tell their stories to me. I love stories. Isn’t that what life is about? Sad and happy stories, honest, made up, desperate, hopeful, finished, forgotten and untold stories.
I am grateful to have been a witness to stories of people I have met this past year. I am happy to have shared some of them here with you.
My friend Leen made her New Years cards with pages of books, the message was: in 2018, time for each other’s story.
Last week I came across someone who asked for my help. It was a minor thing, just explaining something on the phone on his behalf. He didn’t speak our language fluently enough, and if he asked for an explanation the person on the other side of the phone would just hang up. Afterwards he told me about all his efforts and not moving forward in this bureaucracy of indifference (my words). Have you ever seen the movie “I, Daniel Blake?” Well that was what it was like. I felt sorry for him so I just listened. At the end of the conversation he thanked me. I answered that I hadn’t done much. Then he said ‘Thank you for listening to my story.”
So cheers to stories untold, may someone listen to them and have them revealed.
Cheers to stories from the past, which can teach us, only if we listen.
And cheers to beautiful stories that are over, may we look back at them without regrets and with warm hearts, grateful to have been part of them.
Cheers to a beautiful 2018!
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