Anna and Anja

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Warning

If you intend to go to Steemfest 3 and beyond - plan to take a week off afterwards!
Apparently it's called Post-Steemfest-Blues.
It's real.
Don't even try to get any work done.

Some have called Steemfest a parallel universe.

It did feel like that, indeed.
And it's weird when you're suddenly beamed back into your regular universe.

So now I start my mornings with an espresso in the café across the street again. (I used to love that.)

I put my note book there and the newspaper. Both of which I end up ignoring because I'm on my phone, reading and commenting on you guys' posts on Steemit.

Unless Anna comes running in, my neighbour's dog. She has a little bell around her neck, which I can hear from far away. I love it when she curls up on my lap and we can keep each other warm.

When I unpacked my suitcase on Tuesday, I remembered that I had been fined on my way to the Berlin airport on Wednesday last week. Apparently my ticket wasn't valid all the way until the airport (I was one stop short!!).

I had conveniently forgotten about this during my stay in the parallel universe. But when the ticket fell out of my suitcase I remembered I still have to pay €60 now.

Ugh.

This universe is not friendly.

However, I also remember sending the guy a telepathic message while he was writing down my details. It went something like, "OK, report me, but YOU don't own any Bitcoins, he he he."
Maybe a little bit out of context, but it felt good.

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The next thing I remembered was that I still have an only-half-assembled IKEA closet in the middle of my bedroom. That was not hard to remember because it was right in my face as soon as I opened the door.

Double Ugh.

IRL is hard...
Let's escape to Steemit.

Wednesday was a good day, though. A very good day.

I received the best testimonial of my life. Out of the blue. For my Receiving Meditation, which I offer on my website (not very visibly, though, since it's not really part of my business anymore).

I don't even know how this person found it. Also, it's all automated, so I don't always see when someone downloads it. And since I offer it as a Gift Economy experiment, I also don't always get paid for it, which means I literally get no notification if people downloaded it and whether they liked it or not.

Well, this person gave back. With words. Here's a [small] excerpt:

Dear Anja,

I once read that there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all our stories is always a truth that each of our stories are intertwined - populated with a unique flurry of ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness. They are epic stories that continue invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which we might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, or as a lighted window at dusk.

My name is [...] I’m a [...] storyteller and writer with a love of words. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon.

But if there was a word that can explain my reason for writing to you, it would be a simple two called “hope” and “thank-you"

[...] thank you for giving me such a powerful meditation that has since created miraculous opportunities in my life within just 2 days!

I was floored. I couldn't even reply yet, because I don't have that many beautiful words, I feel, and I have no idea how to adequately respond.

But the actual reason I'm sharing this with you is because I was writing my epic photo album post here that same day, and I believe the reason it touched so many people was because I was touched by this email and was sitting in this energy as I was typing and remembering everyone.

So that's how all our stories intertwine and influence one another. Isn't it amazing?

Thursday was pretty good, too

I actually worked.

I was a guest on Amy Scotts webinar for her Nomadtopia community and talked about cryptocurrencies and how they could improve the lives and businesses of location independent entrepreneurs. I also helped them install Dash wallets and send them some free Dash.
My favourite job in the world - spreading free money & abundance :)

Of course I also heavily promoted Steemit on that call!

Thursday evening, though....

...was weird.

I went to a "Blockchain & Gaming" meetup at @lrock's co-working space in Berlin. @juanmiguelsalas was also there and @daniel.errey and @dan-atstarlite... I was surrounded by Steemians again.

And I kept hearing "Steem, Steem" but for some reason they spelled it differently...

What's Steam??

And now it's Friday evening

...and I will give in to the cold I've had all week since my return and if it wants to turn into a flu, so be it.

It will give me an excuse for not assembling that IKEA beast for a few more days...

I need to rest so I'll be fine again by Tuesday, because look what's happening on Tuesday night:

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Good night, parallel universe!
xx