humble and happy?

source

i read this quote last week and it thought yes, yes that is true. but then i thought: how do i spend less time thinking of myself? 

two weeks ago i listened to a preach in my church, and the preacher told us that he always prays when he is in the car on his way to work. 

when i am on the bus on my way to uni, i usually think about what i need to do that day or i lose myself in daydreams of my future house, husband, children, job etc - and in these dreams i always are in the centre of attention. this is not really the definition of humility. also i don't think that these dreams of the future where everything is better than now, are particularly helpful or constructive.

i felt really challenged this morning to consciously choose not to think about myself but to recalibrate myself again and again and set my focus on jesus. 

it is my experience that when i occupy my mind with him, all the other things come into perspective. things i worry about or that make me feel scared are not as daunting and important anymore. funny, how thinking of myself less, actually makes me more calm and satisfied.

rather than dreaming of the future i want to thank god for this day, for the people who surround me now and i want to be open and perceptive to where i can be a blessing to others. 

my beautiful lancaster... ♥

The crisis is not over yet.

Let's keep on praying for Japan.

If you need details, the New York Times keeps an update here.

Breathing Earth

Check out this link. 

It's a visual real-time simulation that displays the

 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, birth rates, 

and death rates of every country in the world.

The people who know me, know that environmental issues are a of great interest to me and that I desire to live as environmental friendly as possible. 

But often I feel overwhelmed by the things I should and could do, that I don't know where to start. And I often feel so help- and useless. Like one person couldn't make a difference. 

But I think if we all start to "reduce, reuse, recycle" a bit more, it will make a difference. 

And so I give my best and start with little things like driving my bike whenever it's possible and do not take the car, buy fruits from Germany and use recycled paper. I know there's more that I could do, but I'm a work in progress.

pictures via weheartit

Great week!

On Monday I wrote my very last final! I can not describe what a great feeling it is to finally be done with Kafka, calculus, British Empire and Feuerbach.
In the afternoon we had a little party in our schoolyard which was really funny. I never was tipsy in school before...

In the evening I went out with a bunch of people from my year eating pizza. Originally we had planned to "pub crawl" but we realised that our town is not really buzzing with parties on a monday evening. However, we had a lot of fun.

Tuesday I had to get up really early because me and my dad had to catch a train that brought us to Zurich from where we flew to Manchester, were we took another train to Lancaster. 
I tell you: This is one beautiful city with the most friendly people! 

Wednesday we started our day with a great breakfast in our hotel, reading, relaxing and swimming in the hotel pool. In the afternoon we attended the Open Day of Lancaster University. Such a great place! I would love to go there immediately! 


Thursday we visited the city and later journeyed back to Germany. We arrived at midnight at home from where I went in town to have another party with schoolmates. It was a lot of fun.


Friday we had the greatest weather. My friend Carla and me went into town, eating, shopping and just to enjoy the sun. 

I loved this week and I am excited for the rest of it!


PS:
I can't stop listening to this song. I love it.

I love this song.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  2. Corinthians 13:14

I am sorry.

But at the moment my life is like this:

And sadly I just don't have time to blog.
I hope this will be better soon!

The Colours of the Kingdom

I think there's nothing greater than people who commit their talents and gifts to God, like the creators of this video did. It's such a blessing, and although I watched it many times it touches my heart again and again.

I love reading blogs.

Last week we had a discussion in our english class wether the world is getting worse or better. I think it's hard to find an answer to that, because there are parts in the world, where a lot of people suffer from war, famine, natural desasters and other horrible things, but these are things that were always happening.
I for myself can only say, that I am happy to live in the twentyfirst century. I am happy to have the same rights as men, to be able to go to school, to travel the world and to enjoy all the modern technologies, most of all the internet. I looove the internet. And to come to my point, I love the blogspehere. I am really thankful to my friend Larissa, who introduced me to it. She by the way has a absolutely great blog, check it out here. Her posts are always profound and relevant.
Aaand this morning I stumbled upon the cooles giveaway ever. Actually it's kind of dumb of me to share it with you, because then you all enter and my chances of winning it are increasing. But as you know, I am really selfless. Okay, here it is. Go see for yourself.
I hope you all have a lovely sunday. I will do what I did all week long: studying.
See you next week!

If i had a work place such as this, I think studying would be more fun.

First scary, then amazing.

Thinking about the Universe always gives me a weird feeling. I tend to feel lost in this humongous, cold Universe. But then I think, all this lies in Gods hands. He created it. That's simply stunning.

I miss New York!

via weheartit

via weheartit

source

via weheartit

I just hope I will live there someday.

What makes you happy?

1.   I feel happy when       when I have something to look forward to, like today I'm looking forward to tomorrow where I will spend some time with my friend Carla. Or when my birthday is coming up. I feel happy when I have an creative idea. I feel happy when I'm reading. I feel happy when I watch Gilmore Girls and drink coffee    . When I ride my bike in spring and hear the birds singing. When I am at Starbucks. When I go to the hairdresser. I think I could continue this list forever. 

2.  I get silly when    I am alone in the car. I turn on the radio and sing with it really loud and off key    .

3.  Something that makes me sad is          when I think of people to whom I used to be really close with and now don't have no more contact  .

4.  Something that makes me annoyed is     people who can't stop judging you. people who drive slow. when someone talks in a unnecessarily loud voice. When I have to get up early. When people make loud smacking noises while they're eating. I think I could continue this list forever too  .

5.  A time that I've been truly surprised was         I don't remember anything. How lame .

6.  I am so thankful for          my stuff. I know that's totally materialistc, but I am so thankful for my macbook, for all my books and my comfy bed   .

7.  I feel loved when       when somebody cooks for me or invites me for coffee. And when I get a present. (Ya, I know materialistic again). But it doesn't need to be expensive, just from the heart. And I feel really loved when I get a handwritten letter.         .

My Heart

I don't know how many of you are followers of Micaela's blog Dolce Vita. If you're not - check it out! At the moment Micaela is moving and without Internet and so she asked friends of her to guest blog and gave them these instructions:


Show your heart with as much creativity as you can muster, show your heart in: a picture, a poem, a song (or piece of music), a quote, an item of clothing, and a place.


I love this idea and so I decided to show you my heart or maybe a little of it myself.


A Picture

These girls are my best friends in the entire world!

I hope we'll always be close and see each other regulary no matter where we live and what we do.

A Poem

Die Liebe

Die Liebe hemmet nichts;

sie kennt nicht Tür noch Riegel,

Und dringt durch alles sich;

Sie ist ohn Anbeginn, schlug ewig ihre Flügel,

und schlägt sie ewiglich.

Matthias Claudius

Love

Love can not be balked,

she knows neither lock nor key

she soaks everything.

She is without beginning,

has flapped her wings all days

and will go on 

for ever.

I translated it myself to English... I hope it's understandable. 


A Song





A Quote


"Seid vor allem immer fähig, jede Ungerechtigkeit gegen jeden Menschen an jedem Ort der Welt im Innersten zu fühlen. Das ist die schönste Eigenschaft eines Revolutionärs."
Che Guevara


"First of all be able, to feel every injustice towards everyone everywhere in the world deep in your heart. This is the most beautiful feature of a revolutionizer."


(Again I translated it... I hope you'll get it!)


An Item of Clothing

A Place

New York... this is my favorite place in the world. I hope I'll live there someday!

Some Christmas Feelings

Yesterday was the You(th) Christmas Party. The Decoration was so beautiful and we had a lot of fun. This got me a little into christmasy mood. And this video added a lot to it!

Yes, No, Maybe

At the moment I have to make a lot of decisions. One of them is about fighting for a dream, that probably won't come true or just give it up.
One the one hand I'm afraid of failing and being dissapointed but I also got hope. On the other hand I'm afraid of regret but I also long for relief and it would open up the opportunity to find a new dream.
I don't like making decisions.

Okay. Now I stop being so serious.
Isn't this cute? I wanna have this cute little baby pig!

I don't believe in chance, I believe in God.

And that's so much better. 

At this time, where so many changes are right around the corner, it is so good to know, that God has a perfect plan for my life and that he is in control.

I am so excited for the future!

Hello. I'm back!

Hey everyone. I am still alive. 
I am sorry for vanishing into thin air for so long. There's no other reason for my lack of blogging than my lack of inspiration. And a huge lack of time.

So... what's new? 

First: I am 20 years old now! (Pretty old, don't you think?)

--> This was the invitation to my Party. It was a very small party, just my brother and my closest friends. We spent a really nice evening, eating, laughing and having good converstation.






Second: I've made a trip to Oxford in September with my Dad. I stayed there before, but I just fell in Love with this beautiful city all over again.

Third: I sent applications for University to England last week...  I am really excited. I applied for PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). And now I wait, pray and study. Sometimes I feel like the homework just don't come to an end. So please excuse my just sporadical blogging.

xo Britti

"Ich hatte mir nämlich die Vorstellung in den Kopf gesetzt 

- und kriege sie nicht wieder raus -, dass das College auch nur so ein

blöder, geistloser Ort auf der Welt ist,

der die Aufgabe hat, einen Schatz auf Erden anzuhäufen.

Also Schatz ist doch Schatz, Himmel nochmal.

Wo ist denn der Unterschied, ob der Schatz nun Geld oder Besitz 

oder gar Kultur oder auch einfach nur Wissen ist?

Das schien mir allles genau das Selbe zu sein,

wenn man mal die Verpackung wegnimmt -- und das ist noch immer so!

Manchmal denke ich, dass Wissen - jedenfalls wenn es Wissen um seiner selbst Willen ist - das Schlimmste überhaupt ist.

Gewiss ist es aber das am Wenigsten Entschuldbare.

Ich glaube nicht, dass mich das alles so bedrückt hätte,

wenn es wenigstens ab und zu mal - nur ab und zu mal - 

eine höfliche kleine formelle Implikation gäbe,

dass WIssen zu Weisheit führen sollte und dass es,

wenn es das nicht tut,

nichts als seine ekelhafte Zeitverschwendung ist!"

Franny in Franny & Zooey von J.D.Salinger

My 100 post.

This is kind of special, don't you think? The hundred post? 
I don't really know something special to say today,
but this post won't be like this:

Because I have something to say. It's not hundred-post-related-stuff, but special though.

First: Last week, on Thursday was my mom's birthday. A little late, but I still wanted to mention it here. Happy Birthday, mom! I love you!

Second: Since Tuesday my father is a PD. Dr.! And since today he is one year older. Happy Birthday Dad! You are great! Love you!

Third: Germany won yesterday! 

What a eventful and happy week! 

A21 Campaign

Today my friend Ramona posted this video on facebook.
I did know that women and girls are forced into prostitution but I didn't know that this is happening to so many of them.
I think this is shocking and horrible and I am ardent about the A21 campaign, that there are people who don't stay in this shock but actually DO something. 
You can visit the website of the A21 campaign and see what you yourself can do.

Revolution?!

Wahrscheinlich ist der Wunsch danach, etwas zu verändern, Spuren zu hinterlassen etwas, was die Jugend mit sich bringt. Man könnte das als Naivität oder Realitätsferne abtun, doch glaube ich, dass genau dieser revolutionäre Geist wichtig und nötig ist um die Welt vor dem Stillstand zu bewahren. 

Und ist es eigentlich nicht viel verrückter sich mit Krieg, mit Gewalt, Leiden und all dem Unrecht was jeden Tag in der Welt geschieht einfach abzufinden? 

Ist es nicht pervers auf Kosten der dritten Welt im Luxus zu leben und zu denken es sei genug jedes Jahr zu Weihnachten eine Spende für Kinder in Afrika zu tätigen?

Mir fällt es schwer angesichts der Missstände in unserer Welt, angesichts der weit verbreiteten Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber diesen Misständen, angesichts der Fülle an Dingen die man tun könnte oder sollte nicht zu verzweifeln und aufzugeben. Dazu las ich am Wochenende ein sehr passendes Zitat:

"Gewiss, wer das Sinnlose,

das Hoffnungslose dieser Welt sieht,

kann verzweifeln,

doch ist diese Verzweiflung nicht eine Folge dieser Welt,

sondern eine Antwort die man auf diese Welt gibt."

F. Dürennmatt

Nun bleibt nur die Frage offen, welche Antwort wir statt dessen auf diese Welt geben.