There's a calm stretch of water running behind Steinstrasse 1A. It is a diversion of the River Aa to protect the walls of the city from attack. Today, it houses herons, ducks, geese, the occasional swan, grebes, muskrats, and all manner of aquatic insects. I derive a sense of peace from it, knowing that it protects me from my enemies, which, in a psychological sense, are wrongly directed desires, the purveyors of fear and anger, pain and suffering. I can hold them at bay with the psychological moat of right mindfulness, which in its turn creates the other seven folds in the eight fold path, but in times of laziness, it is easy enough to stand on the balcony and stare at the water!
I put bread I've forgotten to eat on the table on the balcony and my winged friends come to eat it. It puts them at ease with me and I am given an occasional concert for my small efforts. The birds and the water come together to form a small meditation of their own which makes me even more certain that the chain of cause and effect has placed me on this perch and it is my task to make the best of it. Given the time of the year, the lateness of the sunrise and the shortness of the days, the moat is a sustaining factor in holding sanity close and the primeval depression at bay.
On the other side of the house, is the Gaensemarkt, where, in this time of year, a village of huts house fairy tale characters, little automatons who recite their tales for children. There's Frau Holle who makes it snow, Hansel and Gretel, Rotkaepchen (Little Red Riding Hood) and the Wolf, and a little railroad that carries the children around and around. With fairy tales surrounding me, it is a good winter day. May yours be even better!
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