Out of love for the world and its beauty

Today I'm writing again for the first time in a while, having just received an impulse. It happens really quickly here in nature. I don't need to do anything and my inner voice speaks to me on its own. I don't need to do anything other than write down my thoughts. I always feel good outside and I feel like I have everything. Such a wonderful feeling!

I just had the thought of how it can be that I have studied “nature and landscape” and yet have so little access to it as never before in my life? What happened? I live in a city in an apartment building, look at other houses and have to get in my car if I really want to get out into the countryside. Is that my natural environment? Does that make me happy? I studied landscape architecture and landscape planning because I love nature and especially beautiful, impressive landscapes and gardens. I like aerial photographs, plans, drawing and creating and I love being outside in the fresh air and listening to the sounds of nature. So my career choice wasn't that wrong, on the contrary! I used to spend hours wandering through the forest on my own, armed with a notebook to record interesting observations or to write parking tickets. I just didn't think it was okay for boys to pull corncobs out of the field and throw them on the road - that's just not on 😎. The first thing I did after school was to put on my shorts and take off my shoes and then go out into the garden barefoot to check my garden pond with the water striders and my rock garden. There was something going on every day and I was fascinated by the territorial battles between my two species of water strider. Every now and then I grabbed my camera and photographed the new flowers of my rockery plants. It always brought me down immediately and I could spend hours here watching.

During my studies, I dedicated myself to landscapes and their conservation and I really enjoyed it. We spent a lot of time outdoors on excursions in the mountains, moors or I spent a week in the heath mapping plants at 30 °C. That was less cool, but in retrospect also exciting. That was less cool, but also exciting in retrospect. When my former art teacher asked me why I was studying this, I replied: “Because I want to make the gray cities greener!”. I wanted people to be able to enjoy nature. I wanted to bring greenery (back) to the cities, because in my opinion, children should grow up with (at least) a connection to nature, preferably surrounded by nature. For me, a life without it is not worth living or beautiful. And despite a suitable career choice, which I would repeat every time, something fundamental is not quite right for me:

Today I sit almost 100% of the time on the same chair, staring at a monitor, occasionally picking up the phone, and barely moving. I enjoy conceptualizing and working with people, and the meaningfulness of my work is very important to me. But I don’t just need movement in my mind, I also need movement in my body. I need to experience real nature, not just the one on the screen or in concepts. Every day, I put my heart into preserving our beautiful world. That feels good and at the same time I am allowed to take care of myself and give myself what I need. I want to go back outside and experience in my own body what I want to preserve. I want to see glaciers and bodies of water, I want to dive into the most beautiful and wildest landscapes in the world, I want to experience solitude and the harshness of the weather. I want adventure and the need to push myself physically. I want to explore my limits, be fit and feel myself. I want peace and a deep connection to myself and my surroundings.

Why am I writing you these personal words? I’m writing this to you because it matters to me that you are happy and that you live your life in a way that feels right for you. I firmly believe that we human beings are all here in this world to experience happiness and to truly live our lives and not just survive them. That’s why we should now and then ask ourselves whether theory and practice, meaning the plan and reality of our life, still match or need to be adjusted.

Has what you had in mind as motivation at the beginning of your journey or in your childhood come true? Are you happy with what you are doing? Or have you somehow lost your way in the meantime and now find yourself at a point where you are wondering what has been lost?

And if that is the case, then don’t let your head hang, because you can change that.

A seminar I attended last June in Austria opened my eyes and reminded me of my core motivation. Encounters with other people, self-reflection and an impressive setting in the midst of the mountains also contributed to this. I had almost forgotten that my true driving force is the preservation of what I love so deeply: our beautiful world with all its little wonders. I think that’s also why I love taking photos of landscapes and nature so much and sharing them with you. I want to show you the beauty of our world and nature and move you with it. I want to remind all of us of what we actually have and that we shouldn’t take it for granted. Because through our actions and our consumer society, we are endangering what we love so much today.

You might be wondering now what you can do. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a big change in your life, because that can quickly become overwhelming. Sometimes it’s enough to take the first small steps that point in the right direction. You can simply redefine your North Star. And by walking your path, one thing will lead to another and you will know how to move forward.

I have also made a few decisions for myself that give me butterflies in my stomach and have led to me spending my evenings on the couch watching YouTube videos of inspiring people for days now. I’m going to buy myself a new camera that makes my heart beat faster and inspires me to see things in new ways and capture new images. I want to wander alone through forests and landscapes again, searching for the little wonders that captivate me and make me lose track of time. I also bought myself a tent (this time waterproof — if you remember my blog post from Austria ;-)) so I can spend my free time outside as often as possible. And maybe I’ll soon go on my first tours with others to explore landscapes I wouldn’t dare to visit alone. There are still so many unlived dreams that I’m just excited to make come true. I will once again follow my creative impulses more and let inspiration flow freely. For me, that is pure happiness and true life.

I hope my little story and my thoughts could inspire you a bit and that you can take away some valuable impulses for your own journey.

I’m sending you lots of love and I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments,

Kathi