a long walk…

During these past two years, or maybe a little longer, I came close to losing my mind quite a few times… I’m sure you all can relate to that, we all have been fighting with everything we’ve got not to go completely bananas… fear, anxiety, loneliness, loss, despair, boredom and pressure at the same time… personally, I managed to keep my marbles (or most of them…) thanks to my cat and the long walks I have been taking around the city. Now, of course I have talked about Lucifer being the true light bearer in my life (and I’m not done talking… just so you know…) so let’s talk “walking” today  😊

I started walking more or less when the madness started, little by little after I had stopped for many years… various reasons for that really… I mean I would walk around at work or on holidays for tourism and for shopping and stuff, but not to really “walk”, you know? Merely for the pleasure of just walking, I mean. But when we found ourselves stuck at home, with the city practically a ghost town, with no shops or cafés open and being totally afraid to be around people who could carry “the virus”, walking around the city on my own became the only thing that would keep me sane! The cold, fresh air would help me clear my head from work stuff (working from home was very hard for me in the beginning), give me time to think on personal matters and would keep me moving a bit so that I don’t just crash on the sofa like a sack of very, very sad potatoes. And it was so good, I became addicted to it! I would go out for a walk even at 6am or with subzero temperatures! 

And then, it got better! I started meeting up with my best friends for a “walk n’ chat”! I think my excitement was contagious (not unlike “the virus”). Weekdays usually with S, after we finished our work, and on the weekends with M! And life had a meaning again, I was socialising! And we would just spend two, three hours walking and talking, pouring our hearts out, curse and laugh and be ridiculous or miserable, but being together! I discovered the city I live in for such a very long time and, truthfully, I didn’t know! And the thing is, it’s beautiful! In every season! And yes, my feet do hurt after a 14 km walk, a distance that’s not unusual, because in my mind I’m a 26yo but my body… is 22 years older! But hey, who cares? My heart is full of joy! I rest for a day and then I’m back on my feet, literally! And when these lovely walks can be combined with a cup of coffee somewhere or a nice lunch with my dear friends, oh, I’m in heaven! I need nothing more, really! 

So, walking around: better than shoes? Absolutely! But… do wear proper footwear, ok? 😉

hope…

I have been silent for almost 6 months… I know… it’s not been because of lack of good things to share, no, not at all! I guess… it’s because I got selfish… and lazy… I kept all the goodness just for myself and I hope you can see it in your heart to not hold it against me, to let it go, to understand my need to just enjoy and smile and not share… to fill up my heart with it… I guess I sorely needed it…to feel whole again!… But, here I am now, at the beginning of a new year, to praise all the “better than shoes” things that happened to me in the past 6 months and to start fresh with the promise to not be selfish anymore, to share with you all that that puts a smile on my face and warms my heart!

It has been half a year full of wonders! No, I’m not delusional, I am fully aware of the manure we are all in overall but… how else would I describe things like… having a G&T and sushi on a terrace with my best friends? … seeing the most beautiful roses bloom?… discovering new corners in this city I live for so long that I never knew before?…having my little cat curled up next to me on the sofa, licking my hand while I caress him?… finally being able to travel back home and see my brother and my cousin and my niece after years?… swimming in the Aegean and eating proper Greek food again?… not getting sick, at a time when sickness surrounds us?… laughing out loud with my friends?… having a drink and a chat with the lovely ladies I work with after more than a year?… going back to a theatre to see the incredibly talented Iliza Schlesinger perform, an evening that reminded me of how much comedy means in our life?… having Christmas lunches (yes, there were two, Boxing Day counts as Christmas here you see…) with my closest friends, my family, and actually managing to make aubergine spread the traditional way?… yes, it was delicious and so was the pork cooked in red wine, thank you very much! And I served everything on my late mother’s porcelain plates, my inheritance! How else would I describe all this if not as wonders??… I mean, wouldn’t I be ungrateful not to acknowledge them as such?

Yes, half a year full of wonders and here we are today, the first day of a new year… we don’t know what the year has in place for us, we never know the future. But, today of all days, we can be hopeful! We can dream, we can plan, we can wish, we can imagine, we can make resolutions… yes, most of them don’t last passed the first Monday of January but still, we can let our heart fill up with hope! And hope is better than shoes! It keeps us going even when everything else fails, even when it all looks grim, hope pulls us up from our bootstraps and gives us a kick in the butt to keep going! So, if I were to wish something to all of us today for this new year that has just started, it would be to be hopeful! 

Happy 2022 everyone! 🍾🥂

pride month

Disclaimer (or something...): I apologise beforehand to all my friends (and not yet friends...) of the LGBTQ+ community for the potentially wrong terminology used in the following. My heart is in the right place, my intentions are noble and I’m still learning. Thank you.

I love pride month! Although sexuality for me has been a pretty straightforward matter (I’m straight and knew I was since I fell in love with Patrick Duffy at the age of 6), for as long as I can remember I have been sensitive about it in the sense that I understood that this is not the case for many people. That for some it’s complicated but that does not mean it’s wrong. That “the different” exists and that’s ok. I knew there was something special about my sweet uncle T at times that him being gay was not even hinted. May he rest in peace, he only lived (happily I hope) with a man during the last few years of his life. As I was growing older, at uni, I formed lovely friendships with beautiful people that happened also to be gay. Until I met my closest friend S here, a compatriot in this foreign country I live in for more that two decades, a wonderful man who also happens to be gay.

And he’s not the only one. The people in my life with the longest relationships (and I mean, really long!) are in the majority gay! I guess that says something for us straight people, no? Or maybe not... I should not generalise... I mean, love is love and that’s that! Nobody else’s business unless it means to be happy for them! 

So, with so many really close friends who are gay, I learnt about pride month many years ago. And it did resonate with me that pride month is also the month of my birthday! I mean, June is my favourite month for so many reasons!... Birthday cake and wishes, peonies, strawberries, long days... and proud, colourful love! Once I remember dancing around with gay strangers in the streets of Antwerp, when I was caught in the middle of the parade there, and I could not be happier! I like to wear the “rainbow” as a sign of my support to the community’s claim for justice, equality and visibility because it is a fair claim and long overdue! And I urge everyone to support it as well, even if (or especially if...) it does not touch you personally. We should not live in a society that restricts its members’ right to love! 

So, go out and celebrate pride month, show your support, it only means more love around for everyone! Who doesn’t want that?! It’s “better than shoes”! Happy pride month! 🌈