Holidays DIY

Meaning do it yourself!

Most of us by the age of 6 or 7 has already grown out of home made presents. This year I have found my way back to the joy of creating. I have to admit that a beanbag chair sewn by me has knocked out 10 boxes of LEGO this Christmas. J

With Messzelátó Association I have attended a Christmas Present Factory Workshop, where I made these beautiful earrings of gummy bears, beer cans and shower gel caps, and afterwrards I also managed to keep all of them to myself, I just couldn’t give them away.

So I continued the brainstrorming, what kind of presents would make my loved ones happy and I decided by the technique of sewing since I am quite not that bad in that already. I was also thinking in making home made soaps and cute little purses for them, or making more jewelry or picture frames, but these remained only ideas for next year. Anyone who would like to be surprised of my presents, please quickly forget I have said anything about this, OK? ;)

I started wrapping my symbolic little basils seed souvenirs from Italy into the heart patterned fabric of my childhood snack bags and weaved the decor ribbons from Xmas coloured threads. I hope all my friends will be able to grow and taste the results and it will flavour  their foods as all the organic ideas had done with me and my life, just to keep to the metaphore. J Meanwhile I quickly whomped up an advent wreath from all kinds of plants and berries for my Mom. 

And after 3 days of sewing I have finished the football and whale beanbags  (as I haven't found the patterns in english, here are some very funny beanbag ideas on the link!) which turned out to be the main attractions of our families's holiday season. (Pictures comming up later after gathering them from my friend, J’s machine, who also let me turn her apartment upside down and use her sewing machine for the great purpose. Thank you! J) At the end Perec also got some little something, a Xmas xtra on his collar.

I keep stealing the ideas from great Hungarian blogs: Lukrécia Kencéi (home made and organic cosmetics), Kreatív Anyabanya (Creative Witch Mom), Ökoanyu (Eco Mom), Varróház (Sewing House), and Messzelátó Association. Thanks for all! There is no shame in copying good ideas, it is easy to enhance and wake your creativity this way! ;)

And the most important thing for me in this whole experience was that all my love and efforts made their way to the recipients, and besides recycling and sparing money and resources, together with the real spirit of Christmas we tailor made our Holidays to be snappy and personal.

I just keep showing off all my products and achievements, but beleive me, I haven’t created things this way for ages and all the products make me so proud and the joy of creation filled me and infected all my family, too.

I really recommend to everyone with all my heart to return to the forgotten customs of doing it yourself, of being a child and prepare, create make something imperfect as a present for your own joy.

In January I will be on the road again, next post most probably will be comming from the Netherlands. And my own project also started to outline itself, so hang on, stay tuned: to be continued! J

Till then I wish all of you a 2013 with love and health and dreams comming true! 

My Summer Song

You might remember that Móni Csapó, my friend made an interview with me earlier this year, before I started this journey. Second interview is here, thank you Móni, for the questions, thoughts, translation and all!

Here in Pack Your Luggage Blog you can read the interview with pictures.

Background music recommended :) : Nyári dal (Summer Song) - Takáts Eszter

Never the Yellow Brick Road

Hands up who does not remember the famous expression of the “yellow brick road” from „The Wizard of Oz“...

Dorothy and Toto

Dorothy és Toto original

I often think about life based on parallels from fairy tales: Alice in Wonderland, Ponies and Dorothies with their Totos. It is my bad, I know, but come on their symbolism is so expressive.

My latest life phase was definitely not about any yellow brick roads, and I can tell from my own experience that at the start each of your cells are against giving up the well-known for the unknown. Despite of this I can only advice to each of you that you dare to do this step!

Of course it will s*ck sometimes, there will be complications, you can already prepare for it beforehand, but all the new experience will shake up your life, just like a tornado running through the house which has fallen on the witch! ;) 

Always the Yellow Brick Road!

“Ones actions are motivated by seeking for happiness. Happiness on the other hand is fulfillment, a state where each need, might it be material or spiritual get satisfied. Joy is nothing else than the fulfillment of a need and without big needs there is no big joys either. Having certain abilities also means to have the need to capitalize them.”

Albert Szent-Györgyi 

Someone who was able to isolate the vitamin C and vitamin P might be speaking the truth if it is about fulfillment of needs and abilities, doesn't he?

The first month of my adventure is behind me now, the so called warm up phase. Tomorrow I will continue my journey in Slovenia in order to collect new experiences for my upcoming post.

What is it if not shamanic magic?

One thing is certain: I gained some muscles in Döröske under the wings of my shaman and personal trainer, Miss Sábli. I was swimming thousand of meters and cycling from 10 to 80 km each day,  pulling weeds in the garden, bowed hundred-times a day, wheelbarrow-ed mulch, made spontaneous yoga-exercises…All of these made my body more fit. As the body gets more fit, the spirit reaches its turning point as well: as the Vazsi tribe conquered Zala in one day and made himself suffer among these unrealistically kind folks for no reason through mountains and valleys in the scorching sun; at the same time the feeling of ”being capable of everything” won over the doubtful thoughts like ”why did I even start this, and whose insane one's idea was this at all”?

It might sound like a common sentence, but with time the road starts to be more exciting than the goal itself and it just gets the better, the less you walk on the yellow brick road. Cycling next by the railroad humps you can learn about the local herbs of Vas-county (Hungary); and as you wander through the vineyards to pick couple of apples from unknown gardens, unknown people invite you for drinking a glass of wine with them, eat some gulyás or some bream, and tell you about the most secret mushroom-picking places.

D and É

M, J and É

É, J and J

Besides the physical one another power was present this month very strong in my life: the amazon-power. I got to know four very strong women here. Juli is electromagnetic and impulsive, Dóra is like the stone, solid and steady, Marika is always on the move and unstoppable, and Judit has the immerse power of a river in her. You walk the yellow or any color brick or paved or forest road and you wonder how is it possible that the coward lion, the heartless tin man, or the stupid scarecrow are your co-travelers on it? Who of course already have everything in them what they dream about. And what does it tell about you? Actually it is not so important at all. In this story of mine we were walking towards something which turned out to be a bit of a mirage, or not, the more important is that we all got what we needed to get through this journey.

Power is a funny thing, because it establishes this invisible law of attraction: the strong gets attracted to the weak to protect it, two strong ones want to confront each other, the power of the strong one might scare the weaker one, the strong one might get demotivated by the weakness of the weaker one at the end (and during all of this may be we do not even recognize who we are in this game and who is the other). Or it might be as well that all this concept of power of attraction are just some dead end of our everyday thinking, just as we think of the weeds to be pulled in the garden. In the Hungarian language we refer to weeds in the garden as intruders who take the space, sunshine, nutrition from the crop. They grow over it, steal the breath from it, and suppress it. In the German language they have the same word standing for weeds and herbs (das Kraut) since all the weeds what we actually pull in the garden are not trash at all, and can be used for something.

For example you can cook a soup or make a salad from the dandelion, the fat purslane, the chickweed, and use the horsetail for treating almost every health issue. And I did not even start to explain what mulching is! :)

this is tha plane tree in Körmend
and not the pear tree in Viszák :)

on the road

Follow your road my dear ones and follow your calling, and if it happens to go by Viszák, do not miss the ”Pajtaszínház“ (Barn-theater, hallmarked by József Szarvas, well known Hungarian actor), the Fairy Garden, and  the Shelter-Pear tree where you can see also the traces of Zsu`s, Laci`s and my work!

Preparation

I have always thought preparation is very important, but for long I was not very good at it. Come what may, hurray spontaneity! In many cases it is better to start from a blank page, be open, to be able to ask your questions with honest curiosity, really don’t know what to expect. But after conducting dozens of interviews and client meetings you just get used to prepare and form some assumptions and stereotypes.

I know someone from my childhood, she said she amuses herself by trying to make up all possible scenarios of an event, the good, the better, the worst. She is quite creative, so no disillusionment. Also no surprises… J Although I am quite sure she had some despite all the brainwork.

Now I find myself making plans and todo lists, put down my ideas, start writing a blog… Sometimes I may seem worrying too much, I’ve just got a light feedback from a friend as I asked circa 15 questions regarding a weekend program. J

Anyways, in terms of getting to know yourself better, I have always found it useful to say expectations out loud, write down ideas, than forget into the action and afterwards compare the result, the experience, the emotions with presumptions. It is easy to gain a lotof joy and revelation this way. Aha-experience – aha, ahha, ahhhhhaaaaaa! J

And there are times I feel like I don’t need any expectations, it just kills intimacy. As does documentation to any buzz or experience. This is for instance why I don”t like taking pictures, in the zoo I like to watch the animals and not a camera objective. But I like to check the pictures later. Now a ‘photographer’ found me and took a snapshot of me.

Now I feel like a celebrity a bit, questions are coming from every direction in the late few weeks, I don’t even understand why… J (sarchasm) But now! I have been interviewed! One of my friends – I hope I can say that- was touched about my crazy idea and story very much a few days ago, and she just pings me on chat from Finland that she has an idea. She is Móni Csapó. Now after all this time it is hard to tell how we know each other, once we had a few beer and great talk in ELTE Holdudvar, and we have a common friend very close to both of us. I have recently asked her some technical questions about blogging, as she already has a nice one here:  Pack Your Luggage blog – recommended by me. J

And know we are in an inspirational spiral, all questions and answers and positive energy flowing around us. The point is, that besides my little writings here on the blog, she will also have an interview column – or a few posts in her blog in English with me. So this is it!

And this interest of hers, gave me a lot, I couldn’t stop research and reading on the topic and answering to her questions going deep in the night. Here you can read the interview, how she sees me, and connects to my path:

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3 - Móni thinks organic

Thank you a lot, Móni! :)

Rebirth

I start the blog as I always start to tell this new story of mine: suddenly.

My bio-adventure is starting now. Or is that life? Than it has started at my birth, or even before.

I think Coelho writes in one of his books:

Step 1: Take your personal story from the beginning of your life, or even your pre-history of your parents and ancestors

Step 2: Tell it to a total stranger as it is

Step 3: Repeat this as many times as you just can.

And you will leave your past behind and you remain there, only you bare and naked your soul as a newborn child.

Of course, we need our past. How could we be what we are without it? But let’s be honest, sometimes it is just pressure on us hiding the future or more important, our present.

One evening going home from work, I went through my personal story. 27 years (in this life) is not much, you are done with it in 25 minutes of public transportation. Of course you might seem silly shedding tears on the tram arriving to a sensitive part… J But yet I haven’t found the right time or opportunity to tell anyone. Yet.

I haven’t even realized and the decision was born inside of me: today my life takes a turn.

There are some turning points like this in our lives sometimes. They might occur every 7 year as they say our cells renew, but this as many things doesn’t happen from one moment to another.

Out of nothing you just think: ‘I should try this year keeping the 40 days of Lent before Easter.’ I am not particularly religious, I love meat and alcohol… (I can admit here in private J) And still….

Just the same as the idea of walking the pilgrimage of el Camino the Santiago (The St James way) came to my mind one day, or when I joined the Egyesek Youth Association and their program in Hollókő, or when community work and environmental thinking has started to interest me in University, or I found Organization Development and the Hungarian Organization Development Society, and have joined the organizing committee of the OD World Summit, or I have moved to the suburbs and got my dog, and got involved in volunteering or I crept through a tight hole in a cave on a potholing trip… (not sure You understand all, but feel free to google anything ;)) These things are all fantastic and has led me to my way, where I am now.

But you can go further back to a conversation with teachers you loved, or friends or randomly met Australian girls, or loves being fulfilled or not, or jumps being made despite of your deepest fears…

All of these experiences lead you to who you are and onto the way you are just stepping on. And for a moment you see yourself from the outside and all the good people and things and opportunities start to flow in your way.

Butterfly effect and Flow experience and all the thoughts that you have, and several million people have already thought and felt before you, more or less the same way as you do now. Maybe not exactly as you do, because I like to think that we are all in unity but all of us is unique.

And of course you always have a trigger for a behavior. I have just recently met a priest, who is also practicing in psychology. He is a phenomenon, witty, amusing, deep and warm. He said that usually our partner is the one drawing our attention to one or several of our weak points in our personal development. They are our mirrors, reflecting things that we are stuck on, and are not able to move forward. I don’t mind to overexplain this, I am sure all of You has his or her own example of possible outcomes. You grow and nurse these things inside, suffer, labor, cry and sweat it out, give birth to it, and hug it. And there you are, you yourself, a strong baby not crying but smiling. This is how it came to me in one of my dreams recently.

Most probably all my writings will resemble of me: full of emotions, might be confused, or thick or thin, or too much or too less, specific, or abstract, inspiring, depressing, straight or rumpled…

This one has also been writing itself, giving birth to itself through me. Usually I operate with my instincts, from the guts, this is how this worked out also.

Oh, and what really the topic of my blog will be, you ask? J

I have left my job and profession I have just started, and started to like and grow in it, I packed me and my dog and my life up and start a one year trip (as planned now) volunteering. I will be working on organic farms around Europe, and maybe the world and try to learn as much as I can about sustainable farming, living, getting to know nature as in plants, animals, people. You can read here all my funny, sad, reflective and ecological writings about my adventures from time to time and from places where electricity and internet finds me! J

Do you know the story of two fetus talking in the uterus? :D

Further inspiration you can find on the Inspiration tab, photos, recipies, ideas and further translation comming soon. As soon as possible. J

PS.: Thank you for all who are supporting me, helping, asking questions, criticizing, sharing, reading, and above all loving me!