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Gestalting YOUR Day

Vacation Anticipation:

By the time you will be reading this, I’ll most likely be on my annual journey to Germany to visit my family, hike in the magnificent mountains, eat Bretzel and drink beer (my husband, not me of course). Here is an interesting tidbit; I am often told that I really am not German because I can’t stand the smell, taste, or sight of beer. I don’t mind my reputation however, because I’ll have a glorious time indulging chocolates, eat lots of Kuchen mit Schlag (cake with real heavy, thick, gooey whipped cream) and drink Kaffee. Of course I am also looking forward to eating Bretzel (Bavarian Specialty), cheese, and drink wine – really enjoy the Riesling! Hurrah, is this not heaven on earth? I better bring along good hiking shoes or the airlines will charge me for “extra baggage” on the return flight. What ever – bring it on!

Vacation Anticipation: Personal Reflections;        

As I am looking forward to these glorious two weeks of vacationing with my husband and our son’s family with two children, I must admit what I like most of all about vacation, is being away from phones, computer, and emails; not even a cell phone – luxurious indeed.

Going home is always bitter-sweet for me. My childhood memories flood over me as though then is today, in spite of everything being totally different and new. A city that was once destroyed over 95% is rebuilt, large, and noisy. That feels a bit foreign to me still and I prefer being in the villages that have familiar old charm, old buildings and the castles that give witness to history – my struggles and those of many, many families over generations – the good and the bad. It feels safe and comforting being able to bear it all.

My favorite place is the cemetery. We have the most beautiful cemetery in all of South Germany (so I am told). I like to go to the mass graves, yes; I know that I sound strange. Would you believe that it really feels good and very personal – to be with people of my childhood – to me, they are not dead but very much alive in me. I belong and I honor their deaths in living my life with dignity and honor and in memory of shared terror.

I also visit the Jewish cemetery every time. I leave a stone on the grave site of the Perls’ and Poseners’ as well as on some of the abandoned, overgrown, maybe forgotten graves. Lore Posener, also born in my city, married Fritz Perls who together founded Gestalt therapy (this is a huge oversimplification but sufficient for this newsletter).

What happened to my excitement and joyous anticipation? I feel quite solemn now, yet grounded. Yes, I feel a deep connection to my homeland. Thanks to my history I have learned to love and forgive, and be non-judgmental if, perhaps, fumbling at times and imperfectly. Everything, I became, well, almost everything, became an opportunity in my Heimat and later in my adopted country, the United States.

So how about you?

I would like to stop here and invite you to your own reflections. Everyone has a history; we are all part of humanity for better or worse. Our greatest gift is our ability to make choices – not cognitive alone but from the heart as well. Joy and pain are part of the human condition. Celebrating our own stories, piecing together our memories, is like weaving a unique tapestry as legacy of our life and contribution to the shaping of human destiny, however small.

Have a wonderful time while I am away; I’ll share my sights and sounds thinking of you hoping that you’ll sense my happy thoughts.

No inspirational thoughts either; make them up, fantasize, they’ll be more authentic coming from within you. And, no resources; I’ll send you to your own precious self.

Enjoy and Savor.

As always,
Helga