Moving

Once in awhile, we need to change to give us the chance to grow. It is scary but necessary. You spend many nights awake thinking of what to do, and how and when, but once you decide and take action, things start to move. Immediately, as if the entire Universe just was waiting for you to begin so that it can proceed and move everything in place for that change to happen. 

The past 16 years I lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had very good times, and very bad as well. I got married, had 2 gorgeous little girls, got divorced. I build a company, made success, came close to bankruptcy, got back on my feet. For the past two years, I made good money, got my family back together, received the recognition I deserved for my work.  

But then, things started not to feel right anymore. People around me changed. The economy is close to collapse, the country changed. I got stuck. Nowhere to go from here, no way for me or my business to grow. Either I accepted that and continued life in relative comfort, or, well, I need to change.

We talked, we made tests, we studied options, we decided. The family decided. We are moving. We are leaving Brazil. 

No, I am not leaving everything behind, of course. I will not throw away 16 years of work done. So what to do? 

I didn't have to think for too long, as soon as we decided Universe began action! 

I was invited to and bought a retail business. One, I could manage from wherever I was. I searched and I found the right partner to take on my business. This partnership gave me 40% of another business. Now the owner of one and partner of two companies, all this in less than 2 months, all this just because we decided to go! And as if guided by some magic hand, offers come in on a daily basis. Projects that where stuck rising up again with solutions I did not have before. 

I understood. Sometimes we have to let go. We need to change. We need to listen to our feelings. If it doesn't feel right it isn't right. Look for and find alternatives. And then make it happen! 

There is no way back, I will take all this with me to my new home. The closer I get to the day we set for us to leave, the better I feel. It feels right again. Imagine how it will be as soon as we get there! 

And the best, even though I have more responsibilities with the new companies, I will have more time. Time to do the things I wanted to do for so long and never could. I will have more time for family, for arts, for pleasure, for me.

Sometimes we need to let go, we need to change!

More than enough!

We do have more than enough, so that every single human being could live a decent and healthy life. The problem is, that there are few humans that just can't get enough and decided that they need to accumulate as much as possible to be happy. But with this comes a second problem, they never reach that point and so, never will be happy!

I am definitely not talking socialism or any other political nonsense stuff. I am talking nature. Nature gives us everything we need in abundance, we just have to remember how to use it properly.

But than again, as long as we are not satisfied taking just what we need, there will be fights about, well everything. All this to gain "power"! Power over what? What is this power? What does it do? Who created this stupid concept and who decides about it?

The US President is the most powerful man in the World! Have you ever heard this? Well, ask Bill Clinton how powerful he felt when he got impeach about screwing Monica Lewinsky! Or Gaddafi minutes before he was hung! 

The thing is, power is just another illusion created by few and sold to us as truth, and most decided to believe in it, and so it became what it was sold for. Get it? If you look into it, there is nothing! But as long as you believe in what you are told, well, than so be it.

But, just in case you decide one day to think for yourself, to look at stuff from the distance and to question what you are told, oh boy ...

As I said, there is more than enough for all of us!

Have a nice day!

The End of Times

Really!?

If you follow the news, well than we already passed the end. ISIS killing Christians, americans killing muslims and vice versa. Rich killing poor and poor ... yes, we know.

Than there is nature. As it was not enough that men are killing men, no, nature kills us to! Hurricanes, floods, volcanos, quakes and who knows what else. 

Oh, don't we forget, disease! Them old ones like cancer and AIDS, and some new stuff that is coming up. Yes, and, of course we have the meteors! Expected to fry us by the end of this year.

Sometimes I think that mankind deserves to be wiped out of the face of this planet. What did we actually do for good? Since the beginning it was all about conquest and get more than the other, and to dominate and to kill whatever and who ever was in our way. Not the nicest way to take care of what was given to us, by God maybe, or evolution! Or some aliens!

Looking back, many lessons to lern but no one really cares. Business as usual! The few that are trying to make a difference, I hope that it is them that will survive. And than start over again, doing the right thing!

Anyways, I am not on self destruction mode. No! I want to see what comes next and how we handle it! 

Who will win?

Honestly, I think the planet will!

Best of luck folks!

The Power of Wilful Ignorance

Once again I've been absent from writing. Once again I asked myself why. And once again I caught myself doing what everybody else does, I ignore!

I ignore that, though I have so much to say, I rather don't. Well, only a few might read and it won't really matter ... but if it did?

I ignore that the World around me is turning upside down. That I live in a time were more young people die of homicides than in war! And by the way, in the middle of XXI'st Century and still wars?! Didn't we learn from the past! Well, I ignore the news that tells me all the evil that is happening just next door of mine - actually one of the reasons I ignore all that is the massive information thrown at me and that makes me want not to know it -!

And then I remember, that they do it on purpose. They want me to get tired of the news so that I start to banalize these happenings and go on consuming and living business as usual.
And I remember Ayn Rand: “The hardest thing to explain is glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.” as well as Thomas A. Edison: “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” or Charles Darwin that once said: “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”And I could go on and on stating these great thinkers just to see and feel how stupid I became by joining this willful ignorance of the masses, only to live in a fictitious peace of mind.

But I don't! I don't like this! I want this to change. I don't want my two little girls to tell me in the future that I had the opportunity to do something and didn't!

So I want to see, to hear and most of all I want to speak, out loud. Maybe someone hears me or reads me and also decides to change ... ... ...

James A. Michener

“An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.”

Good luck to all of us!

Are you sure you want to come and enjoy the World Cup here in Brazil?

No words needed, just watch this video and think!

Gun victim is "transported" by police to the nearest hospital!

And Vacation comes to an End

Never thought that two weeks could pass so fast. But as everything that is fun, this trip also came to its end.

We had a few more rainy days at the hotel pool, two BBQ's, one of witch actually was a vegan one ... Yes, I know, but most of the time we spent with the horses.

It was absolutely breathtaking for me to watch my babies riding these amazing animals and getting better at it by the minute. I never thought I could be so proud and happy at the same time. Two times breathtaking! I was taking classes too. The main question though was, why for Christ's sake did I take so long to try this out? I had so many opportunities in life to ride horses, but never did. How stupid can someone be?

The kids had the best time ever, so they said, and when we left the farm, we cried, together.  Taking with us, along with tons of wonderful memories, a few hundred pictures, a few minutes of video, two pairs of replaced horseshoes from Dolca and Pipo, new friendships, great experiences and the desire to come back as soon as possible.

But, it wouldn't be a vacation if, yes if ...

Marc, our host, was so kind to take us to the airport for our trip back home. Since it was also his mothers birthday he just dropped us and went on with his day. After all this wasn't the first time we traveled and I really didn'd need a baby sitter. Lucky he!

When we reached the counter, happy to get there fast since the line wasn't that long, the first news we get was that our flight was one hour late! Well, we had to get to Ezeisa International Airport in Buenos Aires by 5 pm to get our connection flight to Rio de Janeiro. With this delay we had only two hours left from Aeroparque, witch is located in downtown Buenos Aires, to Ezeisa, a 45 minute drive. We can make it I thought!

What I didn'd thought, better, what I didn't consider was that I was in Argentina, kind of a little Brazil - may they never read this-!

So we boarded the plane with already 1:30 hours delay and, we had to wait for another hour at the runway to get clearance and finally take of to Buenos Aires ... Holly sh....! I started to become a little concerned.

That pilot did wonders and somehow made up some time so we got there 30 minutes earlier than expected, just to wait again at the runway to be taxied in! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! At least we checked our baggage priority so we wouldn't have to wait for it ... ... ... ... Did I mention that we were in Argentina?

Friends for 38 years!

Priority means dead last! So we found out today. Well, Matias was there waiting for us, we had arranged to meet and that he would take us to Ezeisa so we had some time to chat and maybe have a couple beers. By his look, I knew, we would not make the connection, and of course we didn't!

The people at the counter were very helpful and trying anything to get us booked into a new flight. There were not many options and I truly believed I'd have to spent one night at the airport with my girls waiting for the next flight. But no! And now comes the good part. There was an Emirates flight leaving to Dubai later the evening and it would scale in Rio de Janeiro, and somehow we got on it!

Best thing ever. OK, we would arrive only long past one AM in Rio and we would have to pay a lot for a cab to take us home, but, who cares! We were on the best airline in the world and this aircraft was just amazing and the service, well, the best!

First of all, the aircraft was twice the size the one we took to come to Argentina. Than we had individual monitors and phones (remotes) on each seat! They served us real food with real silverware!!!! Everything was free!!!! No one selling you anything! My kids even got their personal blankets with a toy thing hugging it - and they could keep it! Well, I had to promise the kids to always book Emirates whenever we travel again!

We made it safely home. Exhausted but happy. Many stories to tell. Anxious looking forward to our next trip, no matter where it goes!

By Matias Schweiger

yeah ...

By Matias Schweiger

By Matias Schweiger

by now you know by whom!

Our own monitor!

There are dozens of games!

Games, games, games!

I am so tired, but look, games!

Do not disturb!

So, so tired...

Games? No, movie!

What?

Almost there ... 

Look, real food!

Me to!

Our Best Day So Far

After two days of rain and alternative activities, basically indoor swimming and sauna in a 5-star-hotel, some bowling, some cooking for friends and stuff, finally the sun came out inviting us back outside and to the horses.

With days not practicing we needed to get back on track, better, back on horseback and see if we didn't forget to much of our training. 

As a matter of facts, no! We not only didn' forget, as everything seemed so familiar. We really got into it and practiced a lot only one thing in mind, if the weather stayed firm we'd be on our big ride the very next day!

Kids went to bed early and after a long, long night we woke up early and immediately checked the window to see ... ... a partly clouded but in general sunny day! Yes! Our meeting was set to 2 pm, we had to rent two extra horses so we could all ride on one, that left us with the morning to prepare mentally for our adventure. We coocked us a delicious chicken meal, after all we had to be physically prepared too, stuffed the backpack with water and some snacks and of we went! 

When we got to the farm and saw the rented horses, that funny feeling from the first days came back. We knew Dolca and Pipo, after all we trained with them, but these new guys, Toto, a gorgeous light brown and particularly huge horse and a mustang like black and white beautiful horse, who's name I do not recall, were somehow frightening. But there was no time for formal introductions, we had to saddle them and get going so we'd be back before sunset.

At this point I could be writing in every detail how this trip went, so many emotions, a beautiful sight, abundant nature and a gorgeous afternoon. But no, I'd just like to resume it like so:

The best day ever, so far!

Unfortunately I have no software with me to edit all the pictures taken, but as soon as we are back home I will prepare an album and post it to my facebook account for you all to see. I will also edit these posts and add some pics, so if you want you can come back after the 7th of February and check it out. 

So far, thank you for being with us on this amazing vacation.

This was our view!

100% nature

always behind - for safety!

Happiest family ever!

My dear friend Marc and his almost mustang!

Me and my new friend Pipo!