Shared pain

With the dog on a leash I walk along the bank of a small ditch. A majes­tic swan floats in the mid­dle of the water and eyes Maus sus­pi­cious­ly. A lit­tle fur­ther on a cat cross­es the street. We con­tin­ue and pass fresh green weep­ing wil­lows and a group of coots whose star­tled flut­ter makes …

To the north

With four hun­dred peo­ple aboard the plane hur­tles through the night. I try to find a posi­tion to sleep. If I lean too much to the right, my leg falls asleep, but when I sit up, I get cramps in my neck. My thoughts do not leave me alone. The news that we received a …

God with us

This Sun­day will be the start of Advent, which prob­a­bly also means the start of Christ­mas stress for all moth­ers in the UK who have to get their fam­i­lies through the fes­tiv­i­ties with enough food, presents and dec­o­ra­tions. No Christ­mas Car­ols and High Street shop­ping for us this year, because we cel­e­brate Christ­mas in Chile. The …

A different view

His­to­ry is writ­ten by the vic­tors. This applies to what we humans do to each oth­er as well as to our treat­ment of oth­er species. As humans, we see our­selves as the mea­sure of all things. How­ev­er, I think the world is more beau­ti­ful if we broad­en our mind. In an inter­view with NRC, Frans …

Colourful world

I was cycling home this after­noon when I sud­den­ly saw a huge rain­bow, shin­ing over the hous­es. After I had been watch­ing for a while, it start­ed rain­ing and I quick­ly got on my bike again. The trees along the street had adorned the gray tar­mac with bright yel­low leaves. The sun shone on it, …