Sunday Morning Thoughts – April 14, 2024

Just typing that date does something to me.

Let me do some quick math. Yes, today would have been my sister Yvonne’s 44^th birthday. I will take a moment to give the grief that we didn’t get to grow up together some space. Her death no longer affects me in my daily life. I have recently disentangled and healed what felt and still feels like the last bit of trauma related to her dying, the unspoken grief, the uncried tears, the sense of longing and being lost.

Today I feel stronger because I made it through that. It wasn’t an easy process. It’s ongoing in other aspects, but this has been laid to rest. The grief is still there, but only when I focus my attention on it. I do that twice a year – on the day of Yvonne’s birthday and on the day she passed. I’ve learned to give those feelings space.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually put my sister’s name in a newsletter. It just felt like the right thing to do today.

What else is on my mind? Oh yes, online friends that become real life friends. If you told me four years ago that I’d meet the loveliest people on Zoom and then hang out with them three countries away - I’d have told you, you were nuts. But there you go. Feeling super lucky today.

Did anybody hear us laughing when that orange thing said he wanted more immigration from places like Switzerland? I can not think of a single reason why a sane Swiss person would move to the US in the current political climate.

I’ve also listened to some of the CWA panels this week. I enjoyed every single one of them. A couple of times I was like “hang on – Switzerland has a pretty decent government. Not perfect, but also not the train wreck so many other countries have to deal with” or “Switzerland is diverse, do you even know what you’re talking about? Like a quarter of the population is non-Swiss”. But anyway, at least nobody mixed up Switzerland and Sweden.

Did you hear about the Swiss climate grannies? That’s what I’m calling them. I think their official name is different (German: Klimaseniorinnen). They took the Swiss government to the European Court complaining that not enough is done about climate change. They won. Now the Swiss government has to act. Too bad that that’s not possible without a public vote …

And then this happened. I saw a random reel about the Netherlands. It was: foreign friend asks Dutch person when somebody’s birthday is. He was told to go check the bathroom. Being Swiss I knew what that meant, but going to the bathroom at a Dutch friend’s house and seeing the birthday calendar in there still made me smile. Aren’t different cultures fascinating?

It’s amazing how friendships can grow mostly online and then seeing each other in person feels totally natural. Never thought this was possible. I lot of silliness and laughter around here and that’s a very good thing 😊. And guess what I found on a tetra pack yesterday morning: “Wist je dat lachen goed voor je is? Moet jij wel eens zo hard lachen dat je buik ervan schudt?”.

I totally won this game last night by doing a handstand, sticking my bum up in the air and did you see that bow? Silliness is the best medicine …

Can we spare a moment for multilingualism? My poor old brain. I have just one example for you - the word “gift/Gift”. This word might have more meanings in other languages, but here’s what’s going on in German, Swedish and English. You all know the English meaning “present” and have probably all been to a gift shop, right? Then there is “married” in Swedish. I’m not going to worry about the etymology here, so I’ll just say married people are each other’s gifts. In comes German and destroys the entire fantasy because in German “Gift” means “poison”. That’s German for you … The Dutch take it to a whole new level and use the French word for “present” which is “cadeau” but spell it the Dutch way. Obviously my brain has to first figure out what country I’m in and what language a word could be. My brain is exhausted, but in a good way.

I got an “almost 50” birthday to mentally prepare for, so I’ll leave it here. Have a lovely Sunday everybody and please plan in some silliness. Hugs all around.