19th and 23rd January

Strange title for a story: 19th and 23rd January. But these dates mean much for me. 19th January 1990 died one of the most mysterious men of the last century: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 23rd January 2008 died my beloved daughter, my one and only child.

Strange coincidence: At 19th January existence helped to fulfil a dream of my childhood: A motor home. Several years we used Mima's market car, a simple VW Transporter for Camping holydays. Mima called this vehicle "Blue Whale". In the year 2003 we have bought a small motor home in the Volkwagen Transporter. This car had a fridge, shower, a heater and an oven. This Car we called "nobydick". But with 5.18 Meters this car was too small for both of us.

In the year 2005 we bought another VW-Transporter. This is Mima’s “Sea Cow” for her Christmas Market. With a new high roof, a heater and an oven we used this car for many wonderful journeys to Italy, Spain, France, Croatia. But thic car is nearly not usable in snow and ice, blecause the isolation does not help enough in very cold nights.

So at 19th January our new car fulfils our expectations better, much better. This car is produced by Seitz, a famous factory in Germany. Seitz has a patent protected windows in camping cars. From around 2004 till 2008 Seitz produced very solid camping cars under the label "Tikro". With the finance crisis ahead Seitz stopped 2008 the production of these solid expensive motor homes.

The basic vehicel is is again a VW, but a bigger truck called "Crafter". .The living cabin is constructed of fiber glass plastic. These kind of walls isolate like a 30 Centimeters stone wall. The heater has nearly double power than in Mima’s “Sea Cow” and warms 12 liter water too.

We got this car nearly new with 200 Kilometers only on the tachometer. Later we recognized, that our example was built as the very first one of the Seitz factory and one of the first Crafter by VW 2006. The engine has 136 horse powers.



My daughter 20 years old
at my 50th birthday 02-14-1998



"nobydick" at the beach in Norway 2004



Mima's "Blue Whale" in Poland Camping 2005
Journeys are always an inviting adventure for us. Working at the desktop for 20 years, looking at the screen day in, day out, that is exhausting for my body and mind. Bringing up my daughter, till she passed her University examinations, was a tremendous effort. Travelling seven pilgrimages to India from 1976 till 1996 needed much money and energy too. What was gained?



"Sea Cow" new for Mima 2006
We work very much. Mima’s Christmas Market was hard. My work as editor in front of my computers since 19th October 1990 was not always easy. But leaving my desktop behind, sitting here at night in this well heated and isolated new motor home, writing on my net book, preparing a new site for my friends and my memory, that is much fun! Our cars and our home are these treasures we gain from our work. What more to gain?

Frank Schirrmacher, an editor of the famous “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” critisize in a new book the distraction of New Media, Computers in general and the web flood in special. Yes, Schirrmacher is right: It is hard, to escape from these distractions, TV, Cinema, newspapers, theatre, meeting with friends, etc. The cities are crowded and loud. And so are the Internet, newspapers, TV, music and Cinemas. One sentence of Joseph Weizenbaum is stored in my memory: "One hour walk in the wood gives you more information than 10 hours web research."

 

Sea Cow and nobydick big - January 2010
How to relax? Nerves are tense, body is getting old, hairs are falling out, teeth too. An information overload floods like an avalanche my mind and nervous system. Help books to find my way to more peace, more silence inside? My answer from experiences of thousands and thousands books is NO! Books are similar to all other distractions. So what to do?

My experience is exploring since decades two ways to more peace, deeper silence inside: My first condition is to fight my body energy down. One is swimming in summer, hot sauna bathes in winter. When this part of mine is tired, the mind comes closer to peace too. The other help are journeys in the calming atmopshere of Mother Nature. Escape the cities, find yourself in nature! Nature is like a caring mother.

Nature is not pure anymore, when these cables trains all over Austria bring people on the top of nearly every mountain. Nature for me is not represented in those luxurious hotels or little houses, where guests come and go.

More nature is felt on a silent Camping Place. You watch the moon and the stars through the windows in the roof. You have to fight with an hostile winter environment. But to enjoy this pleasure,  a costly and technical complicated motor home is needed. And in Winter Camping the heater is the most important part !

Gas was finished in the morning of the 23rd January. The temperature in our car was falling next to the freezing point! The car is new. We don’t have a manual. So we didn’t know, how to start the heater again with the new gas bottle. Mima was freezing so much, that she had to fight for her life! Our warm paradise changes in an ice cold hell without heater!

We went for breakfast in the little village Ehrwald, a beautiful place at the feet of the “Zugspitze”.



Saturday Morning 23th January in the Alp village Ehrwald



No heat, no fun: Ice on the front window of nobydick big



Mima is happy
with our Dinner...



....and n0by relaxes
in the warm car at night, but....

...in the morning without heater
Mima enters nobydickbig freezing



First sun on the mountains
in the  ice cold village Ehrwald

Mima had the intuitive idea, how to start the heater again. We are happy again. And on this sunny day on ski we celebrate my daughters deathday in the Alps in our new motor home "nobydickbig"!

In many sleepless nights my body exercises, just to sit in the dark and watch the thoughts. Mima’s feet rest warm in my lab. She mostly sleeps deep and long. Sitting silently and watching my thoughts can’t called “meditation”. Who am I, to advertise “meditation”? No: sitting silently is simply an exercise! This exercise calms down all movements of the body. When the body doesn't move anymore, mind movements slow down too. This exercise helps in tense nerves stress situations. This is my experience - not more, not less.

Sitting silently is for my feelings a better alternative than to read Schirrmacher books against the dangerous web distractions! The exercise to sit still and watch my thoughts, can’t be copyrighted by any teacher or so called “Master”. Either you try out and find out, if there is some remedy in "sitting silently and watch yourself" - or let it be!

But one fact seems for sure: There could come a time like for my daughter Esther, where you haven’t anything else but yourself. Breathing and heart beating at the end could be all left for you and me! This was watched, when Esther left on 23rd January. How else to imagine the decease of Bhagwan on 19th January 1990?



"The heat is on ... again" in nobydickbig



Mima on skies at the foot of "Zugspitze" 23rd January 2010

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