Black out in our Airbnb in Barcelona

My bestie and I got home from our exciting dinner in the vibrant city of Barcelona and our airbnb looked like a wedding proposal would happen here tonight. Soft electric candle light in the whole little loft we've rented. A bottle of wine and two I ❤️ Barcelona-mugs. We looked at eachother: "Did you order this?" and burst into laughter. 

Then we realized that we can't switch on the lights and then we found the card of our hosts: We are so sorry, electricity is out but we hope that it's fixed by tomorrow! As a little "making up for the inconvenience"-present, please take these mugs home as a souvenir and enjoy the wine tonight. 

WOW! We were even more in love with this place and its owners than before. The two ladies who offer this and 2 other places on airbnb built the interior themselves and put so much thought and love into it. Now how they handle a "we have no electricity" situation shows how great they are in what they do. 

So this is the whole story of today. : ) No, not yet…

The funny thing is, that the print on that mug is long gone because of our dishwasher. Even though it's now the most mundane mug in our kitchen cupboard it's here to stay and make me smile every time I use it and bring up the memories of that great long weekend in Barcelona with my bestie. 

Where in your life can you provide ______________ (insert something equal to "candlelight, wine and a mug") when there is a lack of ___________("electricity")? 

This is magical customer service with a very long lasting effect… Even when this mug would break someday I'd still think of it every time I choose which cup I take for my coffee on that day… 

Sending you a big hug in this time where the world is upside down and shook in its core humanity. Please take care of yourself and your well being. 

If you want to read my thoughts about all the bad things happening in this world, please continue reading in the PS… and if you're good with a story of a beige mug without any print left on it, stop here and know that I'm sending you LOVE…and sparkly energy!

PS: Sometimes shutting off the news and not consuming anything can be the healthiest for yourself.

There are so many devastating things happening on our planet every day. Some conflicts/tragedies/wars/abuse/policebrutality/racism make it to the news for days or weeks, then they fade from the daily news but still continue to happen in reality, other devastating things happen without the world even knowing about them.

It's a very hard reality to accept, that at any given moment somebody or many humans get killed, abused, kidnapped… 200 years ago we wouldn't have known anything outside of our circle of information which was very small and or super slow.

Now we have access to ALL THE news worldwide at any given moment in real time. The fact that negative news is getting more clicks and people react more intensely is not at all helpful to get a "well balanced" news feed. For me personally it's impossible to handle TV- or other real life footage from devastating scenes of a war or other cruel situations. I can't handle movies with violence. I can't deal with any movie which is for 13 years and older. I dream about it. The images haunt me forever… I can't even look at pictures. I don't consume news.

I know I am very VERY privileged to avoid these images. The ones I got to see on social media even though I wanted to avoid them are with me for my life.

And now what?

At the same time all these heartbreaking things happen, there are amazing, wonderful and heart fulfilling projects/situations/actions/incidents going on in this world, our country, our city, our neighborhood, the house we live in. Plastic gets removed from the ocean, trees planted, worldchanging businesses take off, sustainable projects get built, babies are born, people healed, animals get rescued, somebody smiles at you, you have a fulfilling conversation with a person you just met…

I like to focus on all the good happening in our world. Where our focus goes, our energy flows. I can ignore the news, I can stay in my own positive bubble AND from there I can take action. As much as I can and want: I can send good thoughts and energy (yes that makes a difference!), I can pray… I can send money, connect people, open my door and home to a refugee,… I can DO things to make the situation better. Doing is powerful. It's also powerful to just focus on your own part of your world and help your elderly neighbor, invite them for dinner, buy groceries, help in the local shelter, organize a party for your block and raise money…

Every good action makes a difference. Every good thought makes a difference. You taking care of your own well being and your loved ones makes a difference.

Peace begins within ourselves. In our families. In our neighborhood. It matters how we treat ourselves. It matters how we treat our partner, our kids, our neighbors.

I want world peace. I want the killing to end. I want the factories which produce weapons to stop producing machines to kill and bombs to kill and destroy. Switzerland always acts oh so neutral and with an oh so neutral smile, we organize the money flow from all the wars and our weapon-industry flourishes… "How can we know that they use these for killing? That's not our responsibility! And we don't want refugees, because they have to sort their problems out on their own. We work hard and that's why we deserve this privileged life to save Switzerland, please don't bother us" THIS makes me very angry!

We have A LOT to do. A LOT has to change.

Nobody should be afraid to die. Nobody should be killed. Nobody should be threatened. We belong together. We are all connected. Every human being on this planet should feel safe and loved. Every life in every single country matters deeply.

Until this is the case I am on my personal mission of spreading kindness and joy and lightness. When more people create joy for their own life, it ripples outwards. The people around them get uplifted and feel their own power rise. When we change from the inside out and realize that this planet is so incredibly beautiful and our possibilities are endless we just have to find out what we want to be and do and have in our lives and GO AND GET it, DO it ... and change the world together. Are you in? I am all IN!

I'm sending you a big hug again and if turning off the news and taking good care of yourself and the people around you feels like the right thing to do right now: Do it.

I love you,

* * * * *

This is a story from my weekly Joy-Letter that goes out every Sunday. Do you want to be the first to hear my personal scrapbook stories? Then sign up below.

 * * * * *