luit-pariya: Back again in Germany at springtime

I don't have a lot to say right now....because just as I was planning to write a happy post about the lovely things I saw during a forest walk in the Eifel the other day, terror struck in Pahalgam and killed so many innocent people that I am terrified, terrified even to be happy. Terrified to say that this world is in order because my world back home is not in order. How could it be when so many people were killed needlessly by a bunch of terrorists who have no religion, no country, no God, or perhaps that is wrong, perhaps hate is their religion, their country, their God... who can say...

Well, let me talk about the happy things because there is no way one can explain evil. When I arrived in Germany this time I was a little worried, because so much had happened in the world since I was last here. Trump had happened; Israel had invaded Gaza, Russia has not stopped its attacks on Ukraine, the EU had fallen out with Trump, the far right parties had made significant gains in the German elections, etc etc. But Anna, thank God for Anna, was still just the same friendly, happy and caring person who came to meet me at the train station and who helped me carry my heavy suitcase up the steps into my first floor flat. Uta came soon after and helped me reschedule some important doctor appointments that I had missed while I was away.

This far everything was in order. The flowers were beginning to bloom, the sun was shining and it was not so cold any more in Wuerzburg. Stephan's little granddaughter came to stay with me a few days and we had a lovely time together. I was happy...

One week into the trip I went to Koeln to meet my friends there over Easter. They had bought a house in a small village in the Eifel and had moved out of the city. I was eager to see their new home. The train ride along the Rhine from Mainz to Koblenz and then all the way up to Koeln was simply beautiful. That is probably one of the prettiest train rides one can have in Germany. My mind was full of thoughts of how those places must have looked in the past when people actually lived in those beautiful castles and fortresses that were to be seen everywhere on that route. I must have looked rather lost for a very friendly music teacher befriended me and we had a very interesting chat -- I guess the language of music is universal, hence music teachers probably are largehearted, as this lady obviously was.

From the Koeln main station it was not easy to get to my friend's home using public transport -- took a very long while. But the Eifel is a very pretty area and I asked whether we could go for a long walk rightaway.

And what a walk it was... First the soft spring light falling on the green moss covered forest bed, then those little flowers growing on the moss covered stump of a tree, and then... low and behold we came to a little forest crossroad...And there tucked inside a hollow of a tree was the full blown nativity scene... I could not believe my eyes... had forest elves and goblins put them there, who kept watch over the candle that was still lit, who planted the flowers and the strwberries that were growing outside? If I had wings I could have flown away to some other world where we humans cannot meddle. It would have been enough for me to be allowed to just keep looking...