She is an 86-year-old lady: proud and brilliant. Her body is fragile, but her mind is rather strong. Before I met Olga Charova, she has been lying in bed for three months, being very sick and loosing a lot of weight.

I didn’t expect her to leave her home and to come to the restaurant to meet, but she wanted it this way. I expected her feeling very shaky. The woman who has been working all her life as a dentist in Sofia showed me something else.

She was smiling, telling jokes and describing how she wants to go back soon to the court arguing with the lawyers to get back her property. Her eyes began to shine, and I was looking in a beautiful face.

I am so glad we met. She told me what it means to be young even if your body tells you the opposite, and she showed me how you can be strong in your mind even if you feel weak in your bones.

The post Meeting the old lady first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Meeting the old lady appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

This is my prince I want to kiss. Will he be my man?

He will be bright, beautiful and sensitive. Very simple, isn’t it?

Kissing the frog and starting a relationship is very easy, too. What seems to be more complicated is certainly all what comes after.

I wish my prince to be different than he is because I imagined him more caring or selfless.

But the frog stays as it is and I cannot give him back.

Am I the princess I imagined to be?

The post Being prince and princess first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Being prince and princess appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

Fortunately, my two boys are rather bright.

Even too bright when I want them to spend less time on their computers or smartphones and when I want to lock them for a certain time.

They are hiding their machines telling me totally innocently they haven’t seen them for a while.

But it is great to have smart kids. They will be teaching me a lot: how to use all the future machines which will be developed in the future.

And one other important thing: they are teaching me to laugh; at myself and at all things I use to take too seriously.

Thank you, boys!
 
 

The post Laughing first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Laughing appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

Apparently, springtime means mice time, and black tomcat started its hunting season yesterday.

It was meant to be a big gift: a mouse on the step of the staircase.

Two eyes, a nose with fine mustache hair and a small mouth were looking at me when I came home.

The rest of the body has been eaten.

Thanks; Tomcat, I am very proud of you. But have you seen the sweet mustache of your predation?

Right. You saw it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left it on the steps for me to see when I come back from work.

You are very soulful. I appreciate.

The post Fine mustache first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Fine mustache appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

Aren’t they wonderful?

Three pieces of art.

But what is art? When it hangs or stands in the museum? Or when it is exposed to the public in a school building?

Being an artist is another discussion. Where does “being an artist” begin? When someone dresses, behaves like an artist? When someone creates an artificial piece of shit and sells it as art?

Being creative means to me transforming something obvious into something different.

Thinking can be creative, too.

I am thinking I am an elephant or a tree. I can feel the thick thin or the deep root, and it feels great handling difficult situations.

The post The art of being creative first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post The art of being creative appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

There are colors everywhere in India. I love it and I often find color combinations, which I had never dreamt of in Europe.

Wherever I walk, I’d love to take pictures and catch those colors. They are smiling at your face and you cannot do anything but smiling too.

Here in Europe, everything is grey in grey at the moment. It is wintertime. People dress in black, brown or grey; people look grey.

Sometimes, we smile a little bit. I try to, at least. Sometimes, someone smiles back. For a few seconds. And then, it becomes grey again.

Why don’t we live all in a colorful world?
 
 

The post Smiling colors first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Smiling colors appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

 
Green isn’t the color I like very much. But when I saw this lamp in India, I changed my mind.

It doesn’t often happen that I change my mind. I like to stick to the things I am used to.

Since years I keep this painted wooden elephant from India in my kitchen, the colorful metallic bird from Indonesia in the living room or the funny cotton camel garland from Egypt at the entrance door.

Do you know the feeling when you come back home from some weeks of traveling and you look at all these things you were used to before?

Don’t you have the impression, you look at them from outside even though they have been your close friends since a long time?

Changing the point of view, changes many things or views.

Sometimes, it is helpful to get a healthy distance to habits, too.

The post Point of view first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Point of view appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

They play around; they have big fun.

The little one grew up in India, the older one in Switzerland. The one speaks Tibetan, the other one Swiss German. Both know a few words in English but not much.

The little one is living in a boarding school in Dharamsala, the older goes to a Swiss public school. The older one has around stuffed animals in his bed, the little one cannot imagine what this means.

The little one doesn’t have any memories of his mother because she left him when he was two years old; the older one calls about fifty times a day “Mama”.

Maybe, the older one will be traveling again to India as an adult with his girl friend or his brother. Maybe, the little one will be living in the Tibetan community in New Deli and running a travel agency.

Both boys will be having friends and no barriers to share time with foreign people.

The post No barriers first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post No barriers appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

Three years ago, Ramesh was selling his beautiful stone carved statues and buddhas. One year later, he was running a yoga school, and this year, besides giving his daily yoga classes, he is earning money with a little resort in a marvelous garden – together with a friend.

For me, he symbolizes flexibility, and whatever he does, he does it with conviction, hundred fifty percent engagement and dedication.

One of his small bamboo huts was our home base in Varkala. It was simple but comfortable, including some lizards, cockroaches and ants.

Next year, Ramesh will expand his green resort. It shall include an Ayurveda treatment center. I am sure, he will keep on going his way, step by step, with the same dedication.

The post Flexible mind first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Flexible mind appeared first on Swiss Made Story.

Running to the bus stop this morning, I couldn’t prevent myself from taking a picture in front of our neighbor’s house.

Today’s dawn touched a string in my mind because it reflects my inner world.

There is light at the horizon.

But I don’t fully trust that it will lighten up as the dawn promises it.

Trust needs time.

A lot of time.

The post Between dusk and dawn first appeared on Swiss Made Story.

The post Between dusk and dawn appeared first on Swiss Made Story.