The other day I read about a guy, who gave his employees T-Shirts that say TGIM.
This is an acronym for “Thank God It’s Monday”.

We spend so much time working I personally think it’s crucial we do remember now and then that doing meaningful work means living a meaningful life.

 

The basis of our human experience are the values we hold.
What’s important to us?
Integrity?
Commitment?
Loyalty?
Uprightness?

These values not only make up the epicentre of our own personal life.
The more we live them in our job the more fulfilling it will be.

I have a friend who told me that he never worked a single day in his life. He loved to play with model airplanes, he then became an ingenieur and now works as a pilot at Lufthansa.
He loved what he did every single day of his life.
This does not mean everything in his career went smooth or easy. Not at all!
But it means that he feels fueld by his chosen field and is ready to fully engage and give his best.

 

Wherever we work, how can we radiate contentment and help create an environment of meaning and joy? Here are some ideas:

Praise others:
Criticising is cheap and almost everyone is more than ready to chime in.
Be different. Be the one who refuses to criticise. Encourage people and see their effort.
It’s not hard to do, so do it.

Plan buffers:
Things go wrong. A lot! Plan for that. Of course, most unexpected hinderances are not forseeable. So turn it around. Expect them to appear and plan a buffer.
We all need space. And we hardly ever provide it to ourselves.

Twinkle with one eye:
Fun and humor are vital. They can loosen up tightness, they bring relief and they can glue together what seemed broken.
When something playful comes to your mind, bring it out. Bring joy to people.
In case you are not sure if a joke is placed correctly think how you would word it that your 5 year old niece would understand it. This will always help you finding the right words.

Please be good to yourself:
Celebrate that you are healthy and can work – whatever your work might be.
And don’t forget to say thanks that the next Monday will come soon! 😉

Much Love,
Anselma

Dag Jensen is a world-famous bassoonist, a very unique soloist and recognised virtuoso. Born in Norway, he started his career early on as an orchestra player. He won the ARD competition twice and quickly established himself as a celebrated chamber musician and brilliant bassoon soloist, playing with eminent orchestras and high-ranking conductors of our time. Through his recordings he not only introduced famous works in new elegance, he also inspires his world-wide audience with new and rare repertoire. Dag Jensen shapes new standards in the bassoon world with his artistic oeuvre and holds the position of bassoon professor on the Academy of Music Oslo, Norway, and the Musikhochschule München, Germany.

Dear Dag, of course I already knew your name in my first year of learning the bassoon! When I listened to your legendary Jolivet Concerto recording, a new dimension in bassoon playing opened up for me. I was completely hooked by your colorful, layered sound combined with such technical brilliance. I still remember how I listened to that recording in an endless loop (seriously, I did that!! 😃). I was absolutely stunned and fascinated by all these fine nuances, I wanted to intensly absorb this amazing level of mastery.

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Fall is coming and with it some new opportunities.
Will it be a burden to pick up work again?
Will it raise some sadness that summer’s freedom and vacation-time is gone?
Or are you excited to start into a new chapter that every fall opens up?

When the leaves are falling the sky comes closer.
That’s how I like to frame it to keep a fresh mindset.

 

 

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When I was in my teens, friends introduced me to a lady. I admired her for her wisdom. She became my beloved mentor. From an early age on, I liked to pick some heroes and tried to learn from these people. Instead of reading fantasy novels I bought biographies and studied how people with outstanding character and strength navigated their personal challenges.

This lady was special to my heart because she was one of the few adults who was preaching that disobedience was the way for humanity to get into a better future.

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When I was a student, we had an audition training with a timpanist. He patiently listened to our bassoon Mozarts and excerpts, thought about what to say and finally told us:

“I imagine the time of Mozart. Horses and buggies, no radio, no television, no devices. Silence. Listening takes space. At that time people had time – almost nobody had a clock.
So why do you play so fast then? We are so accustomed to rushing that we kill the music. Faster and faster. Our ears get trained to intoxicating speed. But what’s the cost of it?”

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Sometimes we make wrong deductions.
We might think, well, the Mona Lisa in the Louvre of Paris is such a famous artwork for its exquisit craftsmanship. The composition is immensely unique.

It does not only depict a stunning woman with a whimsical smile, it is said to be painted in the golden ratio of divine proportions. The foreground, middleground and background are perfectly balanced.

The colours of the painting are soothing to the eye. The image provoces the sensation of elegance and finest artistry. It is made in the sfumato technique to create a 3D illusion on a 2D canvas and gives the viewer the impression of looking into a window of perfection.

 

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What are young entrepreneurs at Stanford University – striving to build world spanning mega tech corporations – taught at their first course?
What are they told to be the basis of ALL success in the world?

Are they led to impress people with their nitty-gritty high-end business know-how?
Are they taught to dominate the market with the latest AI strategic tech marketing?
Are they told to search for the cheapest producer in China and further support slave labor?

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The greatest things in life are not things.
We all know that.
They can not be bought, not even be stolen.
They come to us when we don’t expect them.
And when we want to catch and conserve them, they shy away from us.

In Donizettis L’elisir d’amore, Nemorino wants to win the love of Adina, who ignores him, by purchasing a love potion. Nice try. At the end, they a couple. But not because of this drink (which turned out to be a bottle of regular red wine anyways).

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Recently, in an illustrated art book I came across a beautiful painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema named “Pandora’s Box” depicting a lovely redheaded woman with flowers in her hair. She holds a greyish jar in her hands, watching it intently. The jar looks to be from dark marble, on its lid a sphinx is guarding the content.

The story told by Hesiod reads that Prometheus, who stole the fire from Mount Olympus to bring it to the humans of Earth had a brother, Epimetheus. Interestingly enough, the two brothers do have telling names, describing the ways we can move through the world. Prometheus means foresight, where as Epimetheus means hindsight.

They embody our tendencies of planning ahead and following a vision on the one hand and concluding and reflecting how things worked out on the other. Both are necessary, both are invaluable to human life.

 

In the story, Epimetheus was given a pithos, a greek jar made of clay, that contained all the things, humans don’t want to experience: death, sickness, troubles of all sorts and – take note – hope.

Out of curiosity, Pandora, Epimetheus wife, one day inspected the jar and opened the lid. Though she hastily tried to close it again, all the evil inside could escape and since that time, humans of Earth are plagued, having to cope with their existance all the time.

When it turned out that humanity would almost perish being confronted with all this evil, she let out hope as well to help them carry on.
It turned out, that hope was stronger than all the evils together. It would always prevail.

 

What an astounding story. It speaks about our ability to recover, to carry on, to triumph over misfortune and hardship. We can turn around almost we are determined to change into something useful and of value. Or, to use a Buddhist expression, we are able to turn poison into medicine.

I also like that the much-quoted box is actually a round pot of clay. Not rectangular, not an Ikea-style cardbaord box. So many things in reality are quite different upon close inspection than we might think. There is always stuff to examine, to ponder, to verify, very epimethian – so to speak.

So where do you need more hope to win over something uncomfortable or hindering?
Where did some evil weaken a part of your precious soul – waiting to be transformed into something of value, enriching your life again?

And don’t forget, next time you see a box:
Leave it alone, don’t touch it OR
open it twice immediately!

Much love,
Anselma

Back in the day, Adam was strolling around in the Garden of Eden. He just had been created and now stood on his feet, not quite knowing what to do with himself (ok, that’s my idea of it, I admit).

God was quite happy with him, but he thought, well, something is missing here! What could that be? He called Adam and said: “Hey Adam, I think you need a job. So go out and do something useful. Tend the garden. Make it beautiful and lush, prune the trees, collect dry grass and make sure the flowers have enough water.”

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