“They went through my things,” I could hear the disappointment and the frustration in my husband’s voice. His brother’s oldest son, back then in his late 20’s, had borrowed his leather jacket without asking. “It has a tear in it now,” he continued and the sadness in his voice made me cringe. I had bought the jacket for him, it had been a very special anniversary gift.
I had never heard of ‘Sausage Kitchens.’ Turns out they are everywhere in Louisiana. You can even buy homemade sausages at some gas stations. Just like slices of pizza are sold on the streets in Italy, the people in Louisiana enjoy their Cajun sausages everywhere -and in many variations.
Dramatic and life-altering events take place in our lives, and people around us go on with their routines like nothing had happened. Neighbors came back from work, kids were playing outside while we were gasping for air, desperately trying to find a solution out of our dilemma.
I hike, I climbed the mountains like a goat. I skied fearlessly down black diamond slopes, yet I am not good with heights. Put me on a ladder and I will climb up like the wind, coming down, that’s a different story.
The dead, the sick were so far away. Many of them in cities I once worked in or studied at, when I was young. I knew the threat was real, and so I stayed home like most of us did.
“I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return.
We are all so optimistic, even the pessimists. Every night we set the coffee maker, lay our clothes out for the next day and then we go to bed and trust we will wake up the next morning to a new day.
His eyes were sparkling when he showed me his bargain.
“Only one is ours and it doesn’t drive -it needs some work,” my husband explained to me cheerfully while I almost had a heart attack.
I watched “Easy Rider” with all the other girls from boarding school. I sat in the old movie theater in the South of Germany, and my mind was made up.
For more than a year now
do I sit here and listen,
to all what they say
about hopes and dreams.