Wake up call (and a beautiful video)

Leafy willows embracing us in Swedens most northern vegetated area and after three weeks with much rain the sun is finally shining on us again! People from Piteå are known to be very friendly. According to the highest number of hugs we've reached (so far), they really live up to the record! Let's see if any other city can peak ;)

But getting closer the reality isn't always like discovering a sunshine story in the pouring rain. I approached an old man asking him if he also wanted a hug. He nodded and replied that he didn't have anyone at all to hug. His common law wife was long gone dead and now he was alone. That man's face when he looked at me really affected me and I thought about a friend of mine who works within the police system. My friend has taken care of corpses and seen too many apartments where terribly many swedish die alone. Nobody missing the old ones. It's common that the corpses have been lying for several weeks. All fermented when they're finally found. Neighbours complaining about an strange odour and then calling the police..

Today I met a guy from Africa. He was temporarily working in Sweden and seemed sad about our culture. We often pretend not to see if there's another person in the same room. We avoid eye contact with people we meet. We rarely give things spontaneously but for someone's birthday or at Christmas many of us buy and give presents in a forced way. For what reason? What are we so afraid of?

Face it, instead of competing and comparing we succeed and reach a higher level of satisfaction when we're collaborating and helping each other. Mother Earth has enough resources to provide everybodies needs. Not everybodies desire.

When you change the way you look at things, things you look at change.

/Elin