Another year almost gone! And what a year it was… I hope and wish that you truly managed to #surviveyourlife with compassion this year regardless how happy or unhappy the events around us made you feel.

Let me share with you the two most read posts by you, my readers in 2021. Before we get there, just a short contemplation about compassion if you allow.

I was running in the rice paddies last week. Often, intriguing ideas land onto our minds when we run. This time, I realized that our world is truly a mess. Fascinating mess. One guy builds his own rocket and flies to space and another goes to his rice paddy every day to grow rice. Both homo sapiens but their lives could not be more different from each other. How is it possible? How comes that some people have everything and more while others are struggling to make enough money to feed their families? (On a completely different note: who knows which one of them is happier?) Anyway, something does not add up here.

What to do? I don’t know. I feel though that everyone of us could do something. E.g. buy less stuff we don’t need and do something useful and compassionate with the saved cash. Support a social project. Donate to sea turtle protection organization. Help the neighbor to repair their old windows. We all have capacity to help others. Miraculously, engaging with people around us and supporting a good cause will usually lead to us being happier than before. It seems to me that if we do such small gestures of compassion, the world around us could (slowly) become a better place. How do you feel about it?

And the winner is…the most clicked post of 2021 is the recent 1-minute video of Attacus Atlas, one of the largest moths in the world transforming from cocoon into a beautiful moth in our garden. If you haven’t seen the clip, here is the link.

Attacus atlas – how to become a moth overnight

Second most clicked resource that I shared was to my surprise the story of Patagonia’s CEO saying that ‘Rampant Consumerism Is Not Attractive.’ Patagonia Is Climbing to the Top — and Reimagining Capitalism Along the Way

Merry Christmas, enjoy your break. 

Here are my top 4 ‘happy-christmas-tips’: 

1. shop less,
2. eat less,
3. spend more time with your beloved ones, and
4. take a walk in the forest.

Learn, Enjoy, Live & #surviveyourlife.

All the best,
Dan