time is ticking. I have only a couple of weeks left until my journey is over...

I am going to leave Australia in a couple of days and the last part of my trip is six weeks of South East Asia. Six weeks is so short, compared to 9 months and yet far more than most of the people out there have for their holidays for more than a year. If I think of all the things I did the last months, it seems, as if I am already travelling for ages but it feels so short. Seven months of this pregnancy are already over (thanks Esther, for reminding me, that 9 months travelling is as long as a pregnancy).

It feels as if I have to start to appreciate the time I have left even more. I am already planning what I am going to do when I am back, where I am going to travel next, who I am going to meet, what concerts I am going to go to, instead of beeing here and now with all my soul.

Why do we always have to spend so much time wanting to be somewhere else instead of enjoying what happens now and here? Why do we remember the things in the past over and over again until we are sad that they are over instead of enjoying the time now. Why do we always make plans for the future we cannot even predict instead of beeing right here in the present where we can actually take actions to change and form the future and where we could create memorable moments?

The time is always now and the place is always here. But it is actually really hard to live that way. If we are having fun, we are taking hundreds of photos in order to remember where we were at that moment with whom and what we looked like. We see the special moment through a camera lense instead of enjoying it live. We are already preparing the living in the past of the future. If you think about it, that is pretty stupid. We will always remember the important things of events and the things we don't remember, are maybe not so important anyway. And isn't it much better to be at a party and not to worry if there is going to be a proof of our stupid behavior next day?

But that is just how it works nowadays. We want to remember and we want to impress our friends and even more the people we don't even like. We want to show them...look at my life, I am happy, I look pretty and I have so many nice things. That creates desires. But that does not make us more happy. On the contrary, being happy is getting more and more complicated the more desires you have.

In the book I just read, I found the following simple equation for that dilemma:

happiness = satisfaction/desires

If we have simple desires, that are easy to satisfy than we will probably be more happy than somebody who has more desires but struggles to satisfy them.

That sounds so easy.

And my blog is actually doing exactly what I am complaining about. I am preparing to have something to look at when I am back, so I am already preparing for re-living this journey over and over again. And I am probably also creating the desire in many people to travel to the same exotic places I have been to.

They say, you shouldn't teach what you have not yet embodied or better you have to embody what you teach. So, I am going to stop typing now and concentrate on enjoying my life here and now. And spread happiness instead of creating desires.

Ok, I'll try to concentrate on that AND write this blog. Maybe like that I am also inspiring people to think about some stuff and be happy instead of worrying and complaining.

...

Over all this thinking and life improving philosophy I forgot to tell you what we did the last week.

Well, I couldn't have filled one blog entry with it, it is a short story: we rented a car and drove over the great ocean road and what can I say...it was amazing, beautiful countryside and really nice beaches. But it is actually easier to have a look at the pictures. And we finally saw some real-life koalas and Emus and more cangaroos. No, we didn't go to the zoo, we actually saw them in their natural habitat. How lucky are we??

We are heading to Melbourne tomorrow, where we are finally going to meet Lena!