Is it ever really Good-bye?

Categories: a woman's strength · angels in our midst · Existentialism · Family · Mourning · Nostalgia · Photography · Surviving loss · Through Frog EyesLeave a comment

It is almost inconceivable to me that today marks Daddy’s third death anniversary. Three years. Time has flown bye and I feel as though he is still very much around. Perhaps I can no longer pick up the phone and call home to find out what he is up to today, or listen to his stories of the people he visited as a lay minister. Sometimes it was hilarious just to let him ramble on about Mommy’s latest goof-ups. The more I think of death, the more I like the idea of not having a grave anywhere. Now that I…

Going Old-School Again

Categories: a woman's strength · Adventures in my own home · Existentialism · Family · Nostalgia · Photography · Publication · Through Frog EyesLeave a comment

The cost of living keeps increasing and I find myself looking at the budget and groceries, wondering where I can cut even more corners. The first thing that had to go were the luxury beauty items and routines I had gotten used to over the past 30 years. Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lancome, and a few others are beyond my reach now, and I keep hearing my mothers voice inside my head when I have one of those items in my hands: imagine how many chickens you could buy with that money! Indeed! Due to all the operations in my life…

Meet Johnny Skel E. Ton

Categories: a woman's strength · After-work quickies (Berlin photography) · Battling depression · Berlin Through Frog Eyes · Existentialism · Midlife Crossroads · Photography · Through Frog EyesLeave a comment

If I am going to be stuck going to physiotherapy for the next few weeks (the second round) I might as well have a little fun. Yesterday, while in the middle of a very painful session, my eyes fell upon the skeleton in the corner, and I asked my physiotherapist whether he had a name (the skeleton, not the therapist). He grinned and said that in all these years I was very first patient to ever ask the skeleton’s name, and hence I was formally introduced to Johnny. Unlike most medical skeletons in other clinics I have encountered, including my…

Area 53

Categories: a woman's strength · Existentialism · Family · Nostalgia · Through Frog EyesLeave a comment

Today is my parents´53rd wedding anniversary, and I write this in the present tense because I believe wedding anniversaries are timeless, regardless of where the couple is now. I have mixed memories of Mommy and Daddy celebrating their anniversary, and for as long as I lived at home, it always included me. They were definitely not the type of couple that had date night, and to be honest, I don’t thing they even knew the concept of date night for married couples. Nevertheless, anniversaries were something to celebrate, and because this is my parents we are talking about, it was…

Dirt to Ponder Upon

Categories: a woman's strength · Battling depression · Culture Vulture · Existentialism · Midlife Crossroads · Photography · Social Condition · Through Frog Eyes · women of substance · zenLeave a comment

No, I don’t mean political or entertainment dirt on celebrities. The sermon during mass the other day gave me something to think about, and that is what I have indeed been doing for a few days. Take a 50 EUR/ Pound/ Dollar/ Rupees / Bhat / Peso bill, in your hand, what do see? Exactly that, 50 of whatever currency you trade in. If it falls on the floor, does the value change? It may have just acquired more bacteria and some dirt, but no change in the basic vale. Someone comes along before you can pick it up and…

Orange Is Not The New Black!

Categories: a woman's strength · Berlin Through Frog Eyes · commuter life · Culture Vulture · Existentialism · Photography · Social Condition · Through Frog Eyes · Urban ExplorationLeave a comment

The title is of course inspired by the hit US TV series Orange Is The New Black based on the life and times of Piper Kerman during her year in prison. I loved the first six seasons, but season 7 has failed to catch my fancy thus far. In any case, today´s blog is not about the show, but more about the colour orange itself. Autumn has definitely arrived in Berlin, as the temperatures confirmed. This morning I definitively packed away all my summer clothes with sadness, and replaced the empty space with my fall and winter wardrobe. Out came…

Preparing for Winter

Categories: a woman's strength · Adventures in my own home · Animal Tales · Berlin Through Frog Eyes · Champagne Trails · Culture Vulture · Existentialism · Living with cats · Rescued animals · Through Frog EyesLeave a comment

One of the greatest paradigm shifts that I experience each time I move back to Europe is learning to live with four seasons. This is my third time to live in Germany (having moved here in 1993, 2001, and 2017), and each time the seasons change it is as though the greatest revelation is unfolding before my eyes and I rediscover creation all over again. The seasons are so distinct from one another, each with their own character that I have come to appreciate and adjust to. At the core of my bones I will always yearn for sea and…