The good things in life

This picture was taken of me on 23 July 2014 at around 1000 metres in a spruce grove. Ever since I was a child, I've always loved the "green" - coming and going outdoors, in the fields or in the woods. This is a guaranteed good thing in life! For example, in the autumn I had a tiny cut on my leg that wouldn't heal for days. I went to the green for a few hours and it healed by the evening. The nature walk revitalised my body, zeroed out stress and my body quickly closed the wound. If you can, really get out in winter and enjoy the peace and quiet of the cold season. Otherwise, animals are easier to spot, such as squirrels in parks. It is also instructive to observe how the animals cope with the many challenges of winter.

If the sky is exceptionally clear, it's a good time to gaze at the stars in the evenings and look through smaller binoculars for brighter Messier objects. This is the Orion Nebula, or M42. For me, it is incredibly inspiring and fascinating to be in the Milky Way galaxy, 95,000 light years across. The Sun and its solar system are in the spiral arm of Orion, and it takes about 220-250 million years to orbit the centre of the galaxy, which is 30,000 light years away. I love the photos of the Milky Way. It's spectacular in summer when viewed from Europe, with its centre in Sagittarius. It is obscured from visual observation by dense dust clouds, but can be studied in infrared. The Sun is a tiny bit larger than most stars and white in colour. Literally the mother and father of our planet. We are made of stardust.

Plants are the real masters of life on earth. Their production of organic matter through photosynthesis is important for all living things, including us humans and fungi. The forest, even in the temperate zone, has an impressive diversity of species. I'm very appreciative of the forest, and I've always been bothered by wood heating. I've seen beautiful oak groves, not plantations, and to burn the wood from them, to cut it down for that purpose in the first place, is a crime. The forest ecosystem is also vital to the water cycle. I encourage everyone to really go to a real forest, not just walk in urban groves. It's a different experience. Nature is the foundation of our lives. We should take much better care of it! It is in our interest.

This is a recent photo from the library, books with green covers imitating Christmas trees. The evergreen pine has symbolized the tree of life since the 19th century in our country. Unfortunately, pine trees are dying due to climate change. Humans - us - need too much wood. While we put the pine tree in the main place of the room during the holidays, we cut down the forest. We throw wood into the stove and burn it. And of course you need wood to make paper. The Gutenberg Galaxy made the written text, knowledge, accessible to the masses. The book changed the way we think. Before the written word, there was only the spoken word. It is hard to imagine what the oral transmission of knowledge and its impact on the development of our minds was like. Then we have the digital data of the early 21st century, the handheld computer=smartphone, which also has an impact on us. It is important to have knowledge in your head. Stay in reality.

Imagination is as important as knowledge, nature, connection with other living beings, and the realisation that we are all part of something bigger. Without imagination, you become vulnerable. This was a picture taken at sunset, and I added a picture editor.  I saw the imaginary idyll in reality. By the way, I never mix real reality with fictional reality, because I know exactly when I look out and when I look in. I consciously switch between them. A person's personal development is influenced by the stories they hear as a child. We are incredibly deeply imbued with shared stories. The cultural impact can be surprisingly powerful. And the best thing is to tell each other constructive stories about how people can have a future. For example we should shift our focus from consumption to conservation. This could be the subject of a separate post in the near future.

There are more good things in life than that. But there is no denying that life is hard work. If just one little virus weakens us, we start to feel the weight of life! Life happens to us once, but life on earth has a history of billions of years, and the Milky Way is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies. We are part of a fascinating adventure. Beyond our daily survival, we must see the greater purpose, or our species will have no future, we will be wiped out. If we do not focus our attention, if we give in to our fears or our greed, we will lose to ourselves. While I too am consumed by the fear of what I will be living on from January 2023, I am not losing sight of the values. I cling to them to stay human and keep my ability to act. I suggest you do the same, otherwise our societies will inevitably descend into anarchy and all hell will break loose! As happened repeatedly in the 20th century.