Monthly Archives: March 2017

When Everything Is Not Enough

heartofthread

It seems like I secured a little victory against the harsh greenkeepers of the Waldfriedhof: the little heart built of thread I wedged into the bark of Nadine’s tree last week is still there. Maybe they are going to show some tolerance from now on.

Back in October, I wrote that life is teaching me it’s rules the hard way and that I’m very afraid of the lessons to come. One lesson I had to learn is that there are situations in life when everything might not be enough. We tend to believe that everything can be fixed or saved if we only spend enough effort. But that’s hubris and wrong.

In Nadine’s case, everybody did all they could: her doctors, her friends, her family and me the foremost. But we only managed to make her borrowed time more comfortable and to make her feel loved. I often remember the night she passed away in my arms. The feeling of helplesness when, regardless of all efforts spent, the hand that rocked the cradle wasn’t mine anymore. No, we aren’t that all-powerful as we often believe to be…

How I Miss Her Quiet Heart

oldarttherapy

Remember Plato’s round beings I mentioned in the funeral speech? Well, here is another work of Nadine she painted in an art therapy session back in 2015, when she was in a clinic in Freiburg for rehabilitation.

The lower round being symbolizes me, having some fire burning on the inside, but showing green and blue towards Nadine. Nadine instead, the upper round being, consists mostly of green and blue, both colours symbolizing her balanced, calm, peaceful and harmonic character. All these virtues cumulated in her quiet heart which I am missing so terribly.

Some Tears Left To Cry

goduncle

My goduncle died today. At the age of 74, he succumbed to the long term effects of the heavy smoking habit he sported for about fifty years. In the pictures above you can see him taking care of me around the house in Heidenheim I was born in and in which he lived for his whole life.

When I traveled there today, I expected that I wouldn’t have any tears left to cry for him. This turned out not to be true: even though I spent whole floods for Nadine during the last weeks, I managed to cry a few for him too. Which is a good thing I think…