The first months of the new life – an interim balance

Five weeks of Ayurveda treatment in Sri Lanka, five weeks from Singapore to Hong Kong as a ship’s doctor on the research vessel Sonne, four months of walking as a pilgrim to St. James from Germany to the Atlantic west coast of Europe via the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain, then on to Porto, Christmas and New Year in Lisbon and as a further stopover in the Algarve. – I’ve experienced a lot in the first six months of my semi-retirement, it’s been varied and I’ve got around quite a bit, I’ve met a lot of new people, got to know some of them more intensively in conversations, and I still have contact with a few of them. While hiking I got a taste for it. I have not yet quite got used to the new life. But I have to say that so far I like it, so that it could still be something I’m getting used to. The decisive thing is, and I have to realize this several times every day: Who is forcing me? – Nobody! Freedom and time are new achievements for me. It is also clear: Everything is finite, at some point it will be over, I just don’t know when. After having oriented my former life towards obligations and goals, I now only do what I feel like doing and as long as I feel like it, decide spontaneously and change plans as I please, make new ones and cultivate old relationships or leave them alone. It has its charm, the new open-mindedness. It also changes me, because influences and impressions have an effect on me that I did not have before and I allow them to happen. It remains exciting, at least for now. I am now enjoying the turn of the year in Lisbon, a fantastic, inspiring city full of life and the genius loci.