Rules of Life

This week I involuntarily received a refresher course on how life works and that it doesn’t always go the way you want it to. But what you can do is make the best of it.

It’s common knowledge that if you don’t take life into your own hands, life takes over and leads you down paths you don’t really want to go down. Most of the time it happens due to unwillingness, laziness or a refusal to make a decision. And you almost always feel worse afterwards than if you had pulled yourself together beforehand and taken the reins. You know it and yet it still happens from time to time. I think it’s part of being human. It’s important that you remain aware of it and that it doesn’t become a permanent condition that ends with you becoming completely dissatisfied and only getting upset and complaining. Mostly about things that don’t concern you anyway. Dissatisfaction makes you unhappy, frustrated and angry. And you usually look for the reason in others or something else. But a change can only take place within yourself, the imperfect order in which we live cannot be changed so easily – if at all.

A kinda rough start to the week

This imperfect life took its toll on me this week. The heating broke down in one of the houses I manage on the side. Of all things, when the outside temperature was at -5°C! As it turned out, the reason was that there was no heating oil left. That was my mistake – I had ordered new oil too late, as I didn’t know how much oil the burner was actually using. The order was already out, but due to unfortunate circumstances I was classified as a new customer by my regular supplier during the online ordering process. As a result the delivery was only accepted after an advance payment, which I was only informed of after a week, leading to a delay in the delivery process. A chain of unfortunate circumstances which I wasted a whole day trying to clear up thanks to modern technology (keyword: hotline…unfortunately all our employees are busy…please hold the line…). The next day I was then blocked waiting for the emergency delivery, for which I was not given an exact time. After the delivery was made, further problems with the heating itself became apparent, which took up my attention and time on the third day.

Back to normal on day four

So it was Thursday until all the problems were finally solved and I could get back to my other work. Thursday is always for my father, with whom I spend half the day. So I got out of the city to get some fresh air and escape the gray of the buildings and streets. To give it a bit of added value, I took a different route this time and stopped for a moment on the way to take a few steps. It’s great to be out in nature and the peace and beauty of the winter landscape on the horizon made me forget the stressful moments of the previous days.

Urban contrast

As it was still light, I went for a walk after my return to Basel. In contrast to the nature in the morning, it was the architectural and urban structures that caught my eye. On the one hand, the bare trees provide a view, but at the same time they also act as an interesting contrast and I enjoyed discovering new views.

The moral of the story

All in all, it was a week that was not necessarily dedicated to creative work. I simply didn’t have the muse for that. But it was a week written by life and sometimes you just have to take what comes along and try to make the best of it.

See all Photos of this week