DOWNTOWN

A STATEMENT

✖︎ ✖︎ ✖︎

15-03-2025

Have you experienced that: thinking, no actually, knowing for certain that you are going to die? Over the past couple of years I have been through two periods like this. Looking back it has been an interesting phase. Actually, multiple phases. From the initial shock and panic you jerkily navigate towards some kind of acceptance and then you end up in a more practical phase. One where you organise and write down your passwords for those left behind and think about whether there are things that you could get rid of now because you don’t want saddle your family with it.

But medical science has spared me a premature end and I am still here. Generally things are working again or has managed to find its way. At this moment, I am looking alive and satisfied out on my Amsterdam city garden where the green, just like the hair on my head, tentatively appears. For a while now I’ve felt more like the forest gnome tucked away in an old piece of wood in my garden. Withered, screaming out, miserable. But look, even here new life is growing around this old piece of wood!

In the period of silence between my last post and today (which is why I wanted to explain), the world went on. Today, to help me take some distance from the current situation, I am taking my dog Buna for a walk in the woods. Maybe it will inspire a nice story and if not then Amsterdam offers plenty of inspiration. I am happy to still be here and happy to be able to write some stories for you again. The world is on fire but life goes on. Thank goodness for that!