A special Day

A special Day

A day. A special day to celebrate. Every single day.

A birthday run present - We can run together

 Herzlichen Glückwunsch Stephen and all the best from NZ. Inspired by your idea and birthday invitation and everything you teached me I went for a 29 km (my age), 8 Wonder Birthday run in Wanaka. I could even motivate a friend to join me for the first half and in the second half I ran and listened to some music and thought about the wonderful runs we have had together and others which will hopefully follow. It was also my first half marathon in a mask, Corona safety first but also a lack of breathing so great extra training like a professional. This run just happened because you teached me to be creative, motivate other people and put a long run in small chapters of different places to explore.

7. Wonders of Wanaka

1. Sticky Forest top, just wonderful trails build by people for people to enjoy

2. The bridge and campground I lived for over a month and like to jump from every morning for a cold shower

3. Mt. Iron the closest Mountain were I did a Still Standing Backyard staffel with friends

4. A beautiful source with clear water to drink and a fantastic view, all for free.

5. A beautiful Redwood I like to climb.

6. The famous Wanaka tree

7. Ruby Island is a beautiful Island where I slept and celebrated my birthday.

Most important is the 8 wonders.

Nature and the motivation of a friend to celebrate a day and the moment and maybe just go for another run in a wonderful world!

Have a wonderful day!

We're so lucky most of the days and take it for so granted instead of always reminding ourselves, that we're probably one of the 10% of people who are able to read this because we have the time right now, a computer, electricity, the knowledge to read, no hunger or thirst, so we can concentrate. We're in this world and can think. We're living in exactly this time, in which we can just walk to a grocery store to get food, without a war, without slavery.

The question is, if I actually know more about life, than a little, poor, hungry child who still enjoys playing soccer with friends and smiles sometimes? No, I definitely don't. I'm just born lucky.

"You have an opportunity and a responsibility to enjoy and to live your life as passionately as you can.” - Nick Butter, Running The World 196

Birthday thoughts of a friend!

 Another friend, which was actually in the same town and would have had the time to celebrate with me instead to do no but to share his 30th birthday thoughts with me and other friends and I really liked his viewpoints and couldn't explain it better:

"Hello dear everyone,

Today is my 30th birthday. A big moment that's happening far away from most of my loved ones. A lot of you haven't heard from me in months or longer. You know how it gets tho. To have some sort of connection on a reflective birthday, I wrote a sort of essay that compiles some of my contemporary opinions and ideas. And I'd like to share that with you. Feel free to share it with people whose contact I don't have. Also feel free to share with strangers if you think it could mean something to them.

I'm going to thank you already for the wishes and please bring your glass to my health somewhere today!

The piece:

Today I turn thirty.

Today exactly 30 years have passed since I first came upon this earth. In other words, the earth has completed 30 loops around the sun since I first drew breath. In itself this 30 is an arbitrary number: it's only relevant because we calculate in intervals of 10. If I had been born in old Mesopotamia, presumably this would have been my 26th birthday. But in our world I turn 30. And because a symbolic number is a perfect excuse, for once I'm not going to hope that people will remember my day and wish me things, but do the exact opposite.

In itself not much will change, of course. I will presumably continue the slow process of development that I've been living through my whole life. There is no abrupt fracture between 29 and 30, apart from the fact that I now start writing my age with a 3. But in reality this seemingly unimportant change of a 2 into a 3 still has a considerable impact. Turning 30 does not change a whole lot, but socially I start belonging to a new category, that of 'people in their 30s'. And that change does have real implications. As a newbie in this category I obviously have little idea what it's like, compared to someone turning 40 today. And yet I feel like certain expectations come with the category.

People in their 30s are grown up. They finally get taken somewhat seriously. If they didn't already do it in their 20s, they get houses with kids inside of them. They pay off their mortgage with a steady job that gives them purpose. They take up their social responsibility. They contribute and teach how to contribute. They finally fulfill the role they have been prepped for their whole lives, and they prepare the next generation to do the same.

I am of course creating a stereotype. A stereotype of which everyone who knows me feels that it doesn't fit me. I'm happy to finally get taken a bit more seriously (although that was already the case in my late 20s to be honest), but apart from that I feel little desire to conform to social expectations. To put it more bluntly, I have never felt at home in our society.

I have never felt good about the sequence school-work-pension with as its highest aim the outdoing of others and the climbing of the social ladder. I don't like the fact that our world is divided into bosses and followers and that we're being taught this is a law of nature. I never felt good about the mantra that more consumption will make us happier. That this time the emptiness really will be filled by the new iPhone. I've never felt at peace with, and I actually even felt some disdain for our society that praises itself as the best ever, but constantly steps on the people that make this luxury possible. I believe in our world psycho- and sociopaths are privileged because it's easier to lay off a factory full of breadwinners if your brain is incapable of feeling empathy. But "what I can't see, doesn't bother me" is also the motto of those that stubbornly refuse to look past their own yard so as not to feel guilty about being born on the right side of the world. I bless the universe for granting me the privilege of being born into the Western-European middle class and all the opportunities that come with it. But my empathy sometimes makes normal functioning within our society hard. Sometimes I envy those that don't give a fuck. Their life is probably (even) easier. Poor me!!

The aim of this writing is not to paint myself as an enlightened benefactor that looks down on the assholes that are ruining everything. Not in the slightest! Everyone has been fed these ideals since birth so it's only normal that everyone joins the race to the top. It's normal that those who make it there happily pat themselves on the back. We've always been told that this is the summum of civilization so if one becomes successful in the best possible society, you have a right to be proud, right ? Success feels great and recognition for success feels even better. I don't want to deny that. And also those that feel good about a house and a garden, a raise at work and three weeks of holidays a year, may enjoy that to the fullest! Your life is yours and you should do what feels best. What I'm trying to accomplish in saying this, is explain why I've never felt at home. I'm not saying these aspects of society are evil, I'm saying they don't fit me. The insatiable hunger for more money, power and possessions is not the devil's work, but it's work that makes me run away screaming.

When I turned 26, 27, 28, I always felt that turning in the stomach everyone is all too familiar with. I felt 30 creeping up and felt as if I hadn't accomplished anything worth being proud of yet. Or rather: these were moments when I felt one of my biggest fears most strongly: that of 'the life unlived'. The fear that on my eventual death bed I'd be asking myself what I had done with all those years that had been given to me. That I would have wasted my time. And if the laid out path feels like a waste of my life, what do I do instead?

Halfway between my 28th and 29th birthday I took the big leap into the abyss and relocated to the other side of the planet. My solution to fill the emptiness society brings me, is to look for intensity. In the six months that followed, I saw half of Australia in a crazy adventure full of hitchhiking, climbing mountains, looking for water and making new friends, with kangaroos, kookaburras and eucalypti around every corner. When I turned 29, one year away from 30, I felt nothing in my stomach. Slight hunger at the most. No more fear for the life unlived, cause I was living the intensity that I was looking for. I did the crazy shit that I could look back on with pride and no longer felt that I was wasting my time. I learned that the answer to the question 'what makes life worth living?', is a question in itself: does it fulfill you? And what I did fulfilled me, so I felt no fear for the big 3.

Today I turn 30. Since my 29th birthday I have continued my crazy adventure: from outback to tropical rainforest to New Zealand, where autumn is embracing us. A huge turnaround has taken place. I'm not afraid anymore. Moreover: I'm actually kind of enthusiastic because I'm curious how this decade of my life will play out. I excitedly clap my hands because I can't really wait to see where this story is leading. As if I want to binge-watch life.

That probably sounds a bit strange in uncertain times like these. There's a virus that separates us, with governments using this opportunity to get an ever greater grasp on the populace they trust less and less. More cameras and more control are applauded by those receptive to the fear mongering that can advance one's career so easily. The thinking in 'us vs them' is an increasingly popular solution for the problems caused by the division into different categories. Economic uncertainty and smart propaganda cause those most heavily affected to point the finger at each other. And if that's not enough already, we're in the midst of an ecological disaster that could very well wipe us off the map. How can one be enthusiastic about the future in such a situation?

Well, because I see life, or rather existence, as a grand story, and we have the privilege to consciously live through it. The greenstones in New Zealand's rivers are also blessed with the gift of existence, but I doubt that they'll ever retell the tale. We are blessed with existence and the conscious experience of it. Along its road we forge bonds and feel love and acquire so many different experiences. Live through things that fulfill us. And more so: we have influence. Whatever we do, it will be a part of the story of the universe and that's quite beautiful if you ask me. Whether you find the remedy for the coronavirus or you Netflix and chill all day, this is your addition to the story. According to me, the question is not whether one is better than the other, but rather whether both were fulfilled by it. If not, they'd better invest their time in something else. If so, then it was worth the time.

And it's true that this episode of existence isn't the most pleasant one for us living through it. But would The Lord of the Rings be as good of a story without all the trouble that Frodo and his companions went through? We're in that part of the story where it seems as if 'the forces of evil' will gain the upper hand, but the battle ain't over yet! And many tiny lights are currently popping up to brighten the darkness: people are realizing that social and essential workers are far more valuable than the celebrities we used to give all our attention to. That the shareholders have a lower need for those coins than the employees that fill their pockets. We see that the race to the top is not as important as being in touch with our loved ones. That not being able to go outside is harder than not being able to shop. People are reaching out to each other and seeing that this is beautiful. The explosion of creativity brings us laughter and tears. Scientists across the whole world are coming together to beat this quasi invisible enemy. We're living through an experience that currently connects almost every person across the globe. And even nature curiously comes peeping on our doorstep after a month of lowered production. The sprouts of a more beautiful world are showing themselves already even before the destructive inferno has finished.

A cliché I'd like to repeat is that I think that the best weapon against dark times is not giving in to dark times. Keep your head up, keep your hope up and stay looking for happiness in those places you can find it. Be happy we have the luck to experience this, even if times are a bit rougher now. When I look back to the hard times I've personally struggled through, I'm happy that I lived through them. Hard times shape us. They teach us lessons and make us grow thicker skin and allow us to navigate the rest of life with better preparation. "Level up", you could say.

The big difference between me now and me ten years ago, heck, even two years ago, is that I no longer feel powerless. Back then I felt like no matter how hard I'd try, I'd never have any influence on the world. Today I know I have influence. And if it's not on the whole world, then at least on the details of the story of the universe. My story in that universe. To continue with the video-game analogy: life is like a gigantic role-playing-game and I have the capacity to play the game as I want to with the stats I have. And that goes for everyone. Currently a lot of people play to gain the highest score, but I'm gonna play to make the game as pleasant as possible for everyone. To level out the stats a bit and make the game a bit more fair.

There is no existence outside of experience and in my experience seeing someone smile brings me more happiness than outdoing someone. I kind of assume that goes for most people. In this open world we're playing in, everyone can put their energy in the direction they want to go to. Are we aiming for the money? The fame? The name in the annals of history? Or do we go for making the experience more beautiful for the greatest possible number of players? I would whisper in your ear that fulfillment is the biggest price and that money and fame probably don't lead there. But that's, like, my opinion man. You can only decide your focus yourself. I for one definitely know what I'm going to be putting my energy into in the coming decade.

Happy my birthday everyone!

Hugs and kisses from beneath the snowy mountaintops on the southern side of the world,

Sander