"We move ahead according to the same rhythm"

It’s one thing to travel a great distance and experience allt one town has to offer in a simple day; perhaps two or three if you’re lucky. It’s an entirely different experience to be immersed in one town’s way of life for three weeks. We’re approaching the end of week 1 in Heidelberg and I have to say, this place has already become my home. After a long day at Baden-Baden today, I’m spending my evening on the Rhein river in Heidelberg, thinking about the events of this past week and watching the Heidelberg locals dance the polka at the river festival. I love to watch them experience life in a community where people don’t always have an agenda and are willing to have a beer with a neighbor they don’t usually talk to. I find that people just aren’t like that in the states. I know I’m not.

Yesterday, I spent the majority of the day in the Old Town. My favorite part of the day was walking into a second-hand book shop. Every book I picked up and every word written on the page represented information about I culture that I do not yet have the ability to understand.( My German is essentially non-existent) But you don’t have to know what the words on the page means to be able to understand the value and the significance of a book. As I looked around this shop filled with literally hundreds of books, my eyes glanced at as many as my brain could process. But my eyes only caught hold of one. There was no title on the cover, but judging from its condition, it was very old. It was a book of French poetry and romances with no author, owned by a Gustave Lejeune in 1810 but was printed in 1802. Now this, I knew, was something special. I just couldn’t pass it up. As far as I can remember, I don’t think I’ve ever had the capability of owning something so old. For a very reasonable price, I now own a piece of history. And as I opened the book to read and stumble through the words using my very rusty French, I was amazed by its beauty and elegance in both the illustrations and the words. I still just can’t believe that this little book traveled for 212 years just to belong to me.

                You can travel the globe, visit all the top places to sight-see, and take pictures of every one. But nothing compares to finding something you really feel passionate about and taking away an experience you will keep with you for a lifetime. 

"When we sing the same song together, we live in the same melody, we share the same tonal center, we articulate the same lyrics, we move ahead according to the same rhythm-moment by moment, sound by sound, through an ongoing awareness of the other, and through continuing efforts to stay together and thereby become one within the experience" Kenneth Bruscia