Tuesday, April 29, 2014

To build a home


I have been thinking a lot about "home" lately and how to build a home where people feel welcomed, loved and well taken care of. I am single living with one of my best friends and I know this is both our hearts.
In the past 3 years most of my friends got married (yay!) and are building their own homes where they entertain guests. I love to watch that, love how the different couple personalities come out. I was just wondering about how I can build such a home if it is even possible or how to do it. Most of you know I love to entertain people, love having guests around a table.

I guess one of the key things is to not see it out of a being single perspective but out of a home perspective. I believe Melina and I have done a pretty good job in not treating our home as a communal living space but as a home where we both dwell, where we recreate, where we rest and where we host people. I love that our home is always open for guests may they just stay for dinner or for a week. At the same time I love that we found a way of also just closing our doors and spending what we call "family time" together. In that moment all that counts is the friendship between us in a place we call home. We have popcorn and apples, cheese and bread and tea and usually we just watch a movie or an episode of Nashville but in those moments I feel home.

As with everything in life there needs to be a balance between having a home where people are always welcomed and where you entertain and finding that nick of time where it's just you and your home and the rest that comes with just being.

xoxo

Ramona

Monday, April 28, 2014

Movie Monday

It's time for another movie monday because I have been watching quite some great movies recently - catching up on my list big time.
Honestly I don't know why I had never watched A beautiful Mind before, but I finally did.
First up, we all know what an amazing actor Russell Crowe is. One of the best for sure.
This movie was so captivating and beautiful and heart shaking. It was interesting to have watched Shutter Island just weeks before and then watch A beautiful mind. It somehow all comes together.
It is an intense movie and not easy on you but very worth a watch because it gets your mind going and I love love love Jennifer Connelly in this one. The way she portraits his wife really got to me. A wife who had every reason to give up and leave but she stuck through it. Amazing.

xoxo

Ramona


Monday, April 14, 2014

Movie Monday

I finally watched The Thin Red Line. It had been on my list for a long time but you sometimes have to be in the right mood for a movie. This one in particular. It is a Terrence Malick movie so my expectations where high especially with being a little disappointed with To the Wonder.
But this is a beautiful and captivating movie which will touch you and it is Terrence Malick at his best.
The movie is an adaptation of the autobiography by James Jones showing the conflict of the Guadacanal during WW II.
I personally like war movies (this sounds so wrong). What I mean is movies which portrait the war, not glorify it, but are real and critical about it.
The Thin Red Line was exactly that. An insight into the time, the people, the camaraderie, the pain, the struggle, the fear, the heroism, the regret, the aftermath, the captivity and the numbness. And it wouldn't be a Terrence Malick movie if it didn't have the following elements: beautiful lighting, narrative by the main characters, nature as an important element, a philosophical nature to it.
I wasn't sure how these things would work in a movie about war, how he would portrait it but oh how well he did.
And let's just talk for a second about the amazing cast  of actors! Jim Caviezel really brings it to life though as the main character and hero of the movie. The kindness of his eyes and the soft sound of his voice (no wonder he played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ!) make you believe and still see the good in people.
"We were a family. How'd it break up and come apart, so that now we're turned against each other? Each standing in the other's light. How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory?" - Pvt. Witt

xoxo

Ramona

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Thursday Tunes

You may or may not know this about me, but I love classical music. I grew up with it, played it on the piano myself. Whenever I listen to classical music it is as if my heart opens up and it touches me in ways other music cannot.
I also am a big lover for the New Years concert which is broadcast every year on January 1 live from Vienna. Watching this concert was a tradition in my grandmother's house and a tradition in my parents' house and so I continued it and watch it every single year. Of course they play all the traditional songs by Strauss and it's the perfect way to start a new year.
Anyways all this to say I have been listening to the Kaiserwalzer on repeat for a week now. Everytime I get into my car it's playing. I don't know why, but I just love it so I thought you should share in the beauty of this piece.
I am pretty sure most of you will now the main melody of the piece but there is some parts in it which are slow and steady and make you dream of a beautiful dance and realization of love and what not. So here it comes, 8:34 minutes of pure greatness.

 



xoxo
Ramona

Friday, April 4, 2014

Why am I single?


Sometimes people come up to me and ask me why I am still single. I never quite know how to answer. Mostly because I don't know either. It is just a weird question but I try to take it as the compliment it is probably supposed to be.
Another thing various people have told me (or my mother!) is that maybe I am still single because I am too confident and too strong in my personality. Say what??? Those kind of remarks make me a little mad and very sad. Since when is being confident a bad character trait and not to be desired in a husband or wife? It does not make sense.
I admit I have a strong personality and I also admit that most of the time (not always) I am pretty confident. But these are things about me I would want my future husband to love about me.
Maybe what "they" mean is that it is harder for a man to approach or pursue me or any "strong" woman for that matter. Yet my attempt is to be approachable and open. I will be honest - that is something you can count on.

I think what it all comes down to is the whole subject of christian dating if there is such a thing. With so many rules and expectations, do's and dont's and a changing generation I am wondering if we are a) a little bit too religious about it and b) scaring everybody off.
It all has become so complicated that sometimes I think dating in the "world" is easier but I guess it often is just clearer.
I for one have decided to stop reading into everything and if somebody wants to have coffee with me that sometimes that really just means coffee: roasted beans, water... maybe cake.
I hope you are getting my point when I raise my voice and ask us all to just chill out about it all. If you like someone, spend time with them. Be clear. Be open. Be honest. Communicate, risk something, let them in, get to know them in a relaxed surrounding where you feel safe but where it also stretches you.
Yes I believe a man should pursue a woman but the whole who talked to whom first is just another way of making it complicated. Just be yourself and let the other person too.

xoxo

Ramona

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