2 November 2018
The invisible dog or how being hard headed does not pay off
Sometimes I doubt our border collie’s intelligence. Django always perfectly senses when we plan to go somewhere. He picks up on small signals - even before we take any real action like putting on our coats. And then he furtively disappears into the garage, to his pillow, tail between his legs. As if he thinks he will become invisible to us over there. This is quite peculiar as he loves going for walks.
But we know why he behaves in that way - once in a while “getting ready” means he needs to get into the car, which he hates profoundly. When he was a puppy, he always got car sick. But most of the time “getting ready” means just going for a walk, not going for a ride. He seems to think that as long as he keeps trying to hide, one day he will succeed in getting invisible. His behaviour reminds me of one of my favourite quotes “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
Humans excel in that. We somehow believe that if we keep trying harder we will ultimately succeed, even if we keep ending up with the same result, time and time again. You see it on all levels: individual, collective and societal. An example that comes to mind is how we deal with reward and punishment for so-called right and wrong behaviour. The basic idea is that wrong behaviour needs to be punished so that the person concerned will do better in future and others will be warned. You would think that after all these centuries of locking up and punishing, crime would no longer exist. Quite the opposite is true of course - and our response is to build more and larger prisons. You see the same happening in education, the school system, but also in our companies, organisations and our social and political system.
Should we not question the way of thinking that causes these problems? Einstein put it like this: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. This kind of questions is on my mind these days. I have not found an answer yet. What I do know is that I am completely rethinking my website, to better reflect what I am working on nowadays and what I can offer. You will hear more about it soon. This also means that I will apply my creativity more to that specific project, which will leave me with less inspiration to share here with you. Maybe I will even decide to replace my current blog by something completely different, who knows?
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Ancient Wisdom as a vaccine
In De Standaard of 21 April (one of the major local newspapers) there was a beautiful article entitled "Art as a vaccine in the post-corona era". Why wait for that post-corona era? Yesterday the parable "This too shall pass" ended up in my mailbox.
28 April 2020
From King of the Mountain to Swimming Champion
23 August 2018
What if email, mobile phones and social media did not exist?
12 July 2018
Don’t make change too complicated. Just begin.
14 June 2018
Why not take a mini-holiday
10 May 2018
Lost in deconstruction
"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star" [Friedrich Nietzsche]
19 April 2018
How Dog had a breakthrough – a contemporary fable (part 2)
15 March 2018
How Cat & Dog should follow the example of Mouse, a contemporary fable
15 February 2018
Winter’s life lesson
21 November 2017
A juvenile delinquent dog or the price of adulthood
When we reach the age of adulthood we seem to have internalised all those responsibilities, expectations and limitations. As if the free creatures that we once were are forgotten.
18 January 2018
Lessons taught by wild geese
16 November 2017
Who is the King of Creation?
What if things were different from what we have always assumed? It can make you feel very unsafe to question your normal perspective. On the other hand it also offers incredible freedom and creativity to step outside the beaten track and become curious.
19 October 2017
From prey to predator and vice versa
From prey to predator and vice versa, the natural order put upside down. The animals themselves do not seem to be bothered by it - for sure Django isn’t, and the hens appear to find it quite normal to be on top of the food chain.
5 October 2017
How is your Monkey Mind?
We all have a Monkey Mind, Buddha said, with scores of monkeys, all demanding attention. The fear monkey is the loudest of them all, he is constantly ringing the alarm bell, drawing our attention to things we should be wary of and to everything that can go wrong.
21 September 2017
The parable of the businessman and the fisherman
We always have a choice: do we listen to our sabotaging inner voices or do we opt for what we really want, like the fisherman?
24 August 2017
Mr Goldberg and his assumptions
It is worthwhile to take a closer look at the assumptions you have about the persons with whom you have a relationship. You could develop the habit to ask yourself if a certain assumption is really true. And what if it is not?
10 August 2017
Help!
Asking for help is something we struggle with and we will only ask when we have no other option. We believe that asking for help and putting ourselves in a vulnerable position is a sign of weakness. Asking for help creates a warm connection between the asker and the giver.
20 April 2017
What if ....?
What if you would use a different perspective to look at what you have always assumed to be the objective reality? Does objective reality as such even exist?
9 February 2017
Frieda just asks
Asking for help is something that is hard to do for a lot of us. Self-reliance and autonomy are highly respected in our individualistic society. Another aspect of asking for help is that we build up a 'debt' as it were, We also do not like to disturb others with our problems
18 February 2016
