Currently, you do not get to read much in the IF Blog. That is because I am taking a time out at the world’s best location. Along with Barbara and accompanied by Anna (daughter #2), Sophie (daughter #3), Caroline (granddaughter #1) Nicolas (grandson #2) and Patrick (son-in-law #1).
🙂 What is written in brackets tells you the sequence in which they all arrived in my life.
Four nights and days ago, we arrived at Porto Ageranos on the Peloponnese, around ten kilometres south of the old harbour of Sparta at Gythio. We sleep in our tent, directly on the beach of the Aegean ocean, less than 25 metres away from the water. We live in the wilderness. The ocean whooshes, singing us its song. At night, the full moon allows the stars to celebrate her. The campsite is not very crowded, and getting less so each day.
I have now found my personal rhythm. In the morning, I first and foremost swim to the other end of the bay, sometimes half an hour, sometimes an hour, just as I desire. I hike the way back along the beach. Then I get a wonderful breakfast: fresh white bread with homemade marmalade, Greek cheese and eggs prepared in various ways. I particularly like scrambled eggs with fresh tomatoes and paprika.
The morning is soon over as we are just enjoying our leisure time. Our two small ones keep us busy.- We are going on some short trips along the beach with our kayak and on some bike tours through the mountains of Mani that are sometimes a little longer and sometimes very long. Once in a while, we go to Gythio, where the local life takes possession of us. There is hardly a trip to Ghythio during which we do not take a break in the Touristik – the biggest coffee shop with a view of the harbour.
For lunch, we have tomato salad and fruit. Once in a while, this gets supplemented by fresh egg fruits, fried with plenty of garlic and olive oil, or else with roasted garlic bread. And in the evening, there are so many taverns to choose from that it is really hard to decide where to have dinner.
The world is far removed from me. To be sure, I regularly load the Süddeutsche onto my cell-phone and follow the Haching live ticker. I also connect with all my chats. But that is about it. In other words: I am currently a little out of touch and focused on myself.
On the way from Ancona to Patria, I read the small book “Gratitude” by Oliver Sacks. It was handed over to me by Rolf after I had given the presentation at the “Lion’s Club Opera” in Munich. Rolf Hüttmann does many great things and, among other things, he holds the presidency of the club. He gave the year of his presidency the motto “consideration” and invited me to give a presentation on digital transformation.
I have only known Rolf for a few weeks. He is a very prudent and wise person, which means that, even given the few meetings we had so far, I could learn an awful lot from him. First he introduced the work of Oliver Sacks to me and then he wrote a wonderful dedication, telling me how much lies behind us to be grateful for and how much lies before us to potentially make that feeling even more profound.
It is only due to Rolf that I understand what a high degree of gratitude I feel and how happy this makes me.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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