Singleness made in Berlin - #1. Or the weirdest question I got asked so far

Being a single woman in Berlin can be fun, weird, scary, interesting, adventurous, weird, challenging, surprising, peculiar, weird, sexy, pleasant, different.

Did I already say that singleness in Berlin can be weird!?

You must be willing to love so much to get your heart broken, be the underdog in a fight to get a fat lip, and in life, willing to go over the edge. The ones that play it safe, in life or in business, will rarely see the other side. What truly horrible lives they must lead.

Charles Smith

[The best t-shirt about singleness

Please drop me a line if you find it in Purple!]

And it can be overwhelming too, both in good and bad ways.

How to spend your next 16,000 days on Earth in the best way, and why that matters a lot

How many years do you still have in front of you, full of new days, surprises, funny and bad moments, people to love and places to discover?

How many times are you going to dance? To fall in love? To eat something delicious? To learn something interesting? To take beautiful pictures? To spend time with your loved ones? To laugh? To travel? To take some rest?

That which you believe becomes your world. 

Richard Burton Matheson [1926-2013]

How many times are you going to cry? To hear something you don't want to? To make mistakes? To feel sorry? To be worried? To fail? To let someone down? To overreact? To be a jerk? To listen to bad music?

How many years, honestly. 

According to the life expectancy stats about your geographical area, your gender, your way of life and the like, how many years are you going to live?  How many days are you still going to wake up and to experience being alive?

The first secret of intercultural communication, or why screaming a name in the wrong language is not always the best choice for making new friends

It is a wonderful and sunny Spring evening in Berlin and I am glad to meet new, interesting people during a well-organized event. 

The Vegan buffet is delicious, people are nice and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed.

On my way to the kitchen, to help a little out with the dirty dishes, I suddenly hear... him.

Experience is not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you.

Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]

The guy is tall, good-looking (but somehow not attractive) and fit.

The guy is an actor, and a voice coach, and a radio speaker, and of course an alternative practitioner too. And probably a dozen of other things.

The guy... Or maybe I should use the word "man" for describing him since he is definitely over forty years old.

And yet, he doesn't act at all like a man. He reminds me more and more of a scared, insecure and troubled child desperately looking for attention, any kind of it.

And if he would just not be so rude and verbally aggressive, I would probably feel very sorry for him. For his pain, his fears, his compelling need to be seen.

[When it is about attention seeking behavior, 

I still prefer Calvin and Hobbes, and you?]

Three magical questions that can change your life, or why the best gifts are not about material things

If I would ask you which one was the best present you ever received, what would you say?

Sometimes the best gifts are not about getting the new status symbol or having the latest shiny thing or buying something expensive for someone. 

They are not about fancy bottles of some luxury eau de cologne or stylish clothes. They are not about the perfect kind of wine or big gold rings. They are not even about material things at all, in some cases.

Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats. 

Sue Grafton

[Are you in for a very special gift?

I hope so!]

How?
It is very simple, and this is the most incredible part of those special gifts: if you share them with someone, they are going to become more valuable, more precious, more special.
They are not about scarcity, they are about abundance and happiness.

'Se son rose, fioriranno', or why one should just sit on her hands, sometimes...

Sometimes, if you care about someone, the most difficult thing to do is just... not doing anything.

Sometimes one has just to sit on his/her hands, while waiting for something or for someone, giving another person a chance to take the time for the right decision or for making a difference, or just for thinking about what's really important.

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond. 

Gwendolyn Brooks [1917-2000]

[Keeping calm and enjoying the silence...

can be the way to go, once in a while]

Accepting the silence can be very difficult. Accepting that one can't control everything and that one is just not in charge, for a change, can be frustrating.

And yet, being able to stay in the situation anyway and to wait without doing or saying anything means possessing a great skill.