Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

We know the saying, "If your only tool is a hammer, all the world looks like a nail." The meaning is obvious: if we only know one way to deal with certain situations, in our perception all situations are the same and we always behave the same way. But that is not always good. If you find yourself in a situation today that causes you stress because you know it and you know that you will not feel well afterwards: try a different approach than you are used to, i.e. use a different tool. Then you may no longer be dealing with a nail, but with a slab of wood to be ground, so to speak - which perhaps requires sensitivity and evenness instead of strength of words (as with a hammer). And so the outcome of the situation can be quite different and hopefully more pleasant for you and for everyone - without you getting a wood splinter while sanding. I wish you an extraordinary day!

Everything has an end. On this earth, in this world, that is true. I know of no exception. This podcast began in the summer of 2021, and since then, over 1350 episodes have been released daily in German and over 1250 in English, without interruption. Now I feel that this time is coming to an end. So this episode is the last one for now. I don't know yet what will happen next, if there will be a follow-up format or if the podcast will be continued at a later date. But for now I say goodbye. Thank you for your loyalty in listening and sharing the link. I hope and believe that on some days these episodes have given some people exactly what they needed. I wish you all the very best for the future, and end - as I have every day for the past few years - with the wish that this day will also be extraordinary. Goodbye. God be with you. I wish you an extraordinary day!

A sickle in use today is used to cut small amounts of grain and grass. It consists of a concave blade tapering towards the front and a wooden handle. It differs from the scythe in that it has a smaller blade and a shorter handle. Harvesting with a scythe or sickle cuts off as much of the crop as possible - but the cut leaves the root of the plant in the ground, and with it the potential for new growth. A kind of clear-cutting without destroying the core. Clear-cutting is necessary from time to time in life. Extreme decisions in some people's eyes, perhaps, but necessary in order to put an end to what has gone before in the form of a harvest and to make room for something new. The fruitfulness of the old can serve the new and bring forth something new or related as the next step. Harvest is joy and sorrow at the same time: joy for what has been harvested, sorrow for what has grown so far. I wish you an extraordinary day!

In ice hockey, each player has a stick to move, guide and pass the puck. The goal of the game is to get the puck into the opposing team's goal. The hockey stick has a part at the end of the shaft called the blade, which is used to guide the puck. The player should only use the blade to guide the puck, not the skate or any other part of the body. Someone can be very good with the stick and the puck and be a slow skater, and vice versa, someone can be a rocket on the ice but clumsy with the stick. A good player is a combination of both, as well as being able to read the game and know where to put the puck, even before his team-mate is there. Such a player is called complete. I hope you achieve that completeness in your life's work and that you make significant progress today. I wish you an extraordinary day!

The German proverb goes: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means that it is better to settle for what you can get than to aim for something uncertain. That way you know what you've got and don't get caught up in the uncertain surplus that you could potentially have. I think this is also based on the idea that I would rather make my own choices than be dependent on something that is completely out of my control. And that is the primal nature of human beings. That's why, in my interpretation, people always struggle with the Christian faith. It requires trust in a good God, who remains good, even if not everything in life goes your way. I would rather have a self-made mixture from the cold buffet of religions than something that I get involved in without being able to control it. It is not for nothing that the dove is the image of the Holy Spirit. I wish you an extraordinary day!

When light hits the sloping surface of a prism, it is refracted because the speed of light changes as it passes from one medium, such as air, to another, such as the glass of which the prism is made. This means that white light, which is made up of light waves of different wavelengths, can be refracted into its constituent parts. It can then be seen that white light is made up of different coloured components which together produce white light. I think that a good parent or other person in charge of people, a carer or a boss, is a good prism if on the one hand they recognise and promote the characteristics of the individuals in a group and yet have the ability to hold everyone together and thus form a common strength. They recognise which character is given to whom and how this can serve the whole community. Do you have such prismatic skills? I wish you an extraordinary day!

We all know the feeling of tiredness. It takes us significantly more effort to get up and do something than usual. Tiredness paralyses us. Tiredness can be the result of too little rest and sleep. In this case, the problem is quickly solved with one or two longer periods of sleep. But it can also go deeper. A general tiredness and the associated lack of motivation. Sleep and rest alone will not help with this. There is often a pathological background and the therapy can be much more complex. In this context, tiredness of life is also a bad thing - when you are tired of life, no longer feel any joy and wish it was all over. This is also linked to a lack of perspective. It is interesting to note that even people with limited vision and perspective can be very alert while healthy people succumb to fatigue. Do you have a vision that keeps you awake? I wish you an extraordinary day!

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has coined the term ‘turning point’. It became a kind of winged term and was mentioned repeatedly in many places. A powerful word, in my opinion - a turning point. But who is virtually authorised to use such a term at a particular time or situation? Who defines when times change, when they change so significantly that we can really speak of a turning point - and furthermore: a turning point towards and away from what? Sometimes, in our powerlessness and helplessness, we have a tendency to use big words instead of remaining humbly silent. Our own inability to take influential action is thus glossed over and we turn away from our powerlessness towards the impressive power of language. But this does not change anything: words can be very powerful and impressive - but without authority they are also ineffective and ultimately nothing more than empty words. Good for those who have the wisdom not to be blinded by this. I wish you an extraordinary day!

Sometimes there are chain carousels at the fair. These rotate on their own axis and have chains attached to the circumference of their round roof, with chairs on which you can sit and then be thrown through the air by the rapid rotation. Because the chain is flexible, the end of the chain always lags slightly behind the anchor point on the roof. If you looked at it from above in 2 dimensions, the anchor point would always be further than the end point of the chain in relation to the angle of rotation. Nevertheless, they belong together. In the broadest sense, this can be described as a chain reaction - that is, a delayed motion of the same object. We are familiar with this in everyday life: we are enthusiastic about something, but others take longer to follow, to join in, to get excited. Perhaps the image of the chain helps us not to give up, but to make sure that everyone is still involved so that the chain doesn't break. I wish you an extraordinary day!

Rice is one of our staple foods. But Europe has the lowest rice production in the world. So we are dependent on imports. We have Asian neighbours where the rice cooker is always on - just as we go to the bakery every day and consume bread, they do the same with rice. It's there as a matter of course - even if it's not grown here. Recent political and armed conflicts have reminded us that even this supply can quickly be put at risk. What happens then? Shortages, skyrocketing prices, or even supply cut-offs. So peace is more than just a state or a feeling without conflict. It is also the basis for functioning economic cooperation. But sometimes peace can only be received, not created. Jesus left peace as his last legacy to his friends. He was thinking of more than just rice. I wish you an extraordinary day!

Some people are described as perfectionists. This is not always understood or meant in a positive way. Sometimes it means that such people are pedantic and never satisfied with what they achieve or receive. Perfect, when translated literally, means accomplished. It means that there is nothing more that can be done to improve what you have and that your development is complete. We humans, as we all know, are far from perfect. We have our faults, our weaknesses, and we suffer from them all the time. However, it is not only we who suffer, but also our environment. So striving for perfection is actually a good thing. In the sense that you want to improve yourself and not just the environment. However, I think that such perfection in ourselves is not possible without our Creator. We need help from outside. I wish you an extraordinary day!

My father-in-law had a display case in his flat where he displayed things he had made. These objects were very beautiful to look at. They weren't as intricate as those made by an artist, but you could see that they had been carefully made. The colours were bright and you could see that someone had worked on them with passion and heart. But I kept asking myself: why did he do this? So that the objects would end up in a showcase and be beautiful to look at? Or so that children will play with them or have played with them? Some things are very beautiful to look at, but somehow remain useless if you just look at them. Other things are not perfect, but they are needed and they add value to those who use them. We invest a lot of time, money and resources in our lives. Why this investment? Just for appearance? Or for the benefit? Not just for ourselves, but also for others. I wish you an extraordinary day!

I am a cyclist at heart. And I think it's one of man's greatest inventions. But for cycling to be fun, the bike has to be in good shape and well maintained. That includes good brakes, lights, enough air in the tyres and other things. It also includes wheels that are well aligned, i.e. not twisted into a figure of eight or anything else. The spokes are connected to the hub to make this work well. It is invisible, but it is what makes the wheels turn so smoothly and evenly. No ride without a good hub. What is invisible in this sense is essential to the functioning of the whole. We also have a lot of invisible things in our lives: experiences, feelings, hunches, life patterns, ideals, principles and more. When these are right and healthy, our lives are successful - otherwise we rush through life and our joy of living is diminished. I wish you an extraordinary day!

I used to have a running shoe that was very soft at the front of the shoe, with only a thin upper part. This meant that the front of my foot could move around a lot, which felt good because it felt like I was almost barefoot. This was good when I was just standing or walking a short distance, but not so good for longer distances because my feet got tired and hurt. But when I ran in them, I found that although it was nice and airy for short distances, it was not supportive enough for longer distances. After a while, my feet got tired of holding themselves in the same position, and this led to cramping and other problems. We all long for freedom, but we also need stability. This is especially true when we're thinking about the long-term and when there are a lot of people involved. In these situations, it's not possible to have unlimited freedom. Modern man is also subject to this, whether he likes it or not. I wish you an extraordinary day!

At Christmas time, there are certain baked goods that are decorated with sugar crystals: Doughmen, which we call Grättimänner or Grittibänzen in dialect, and Drei-Königs-Kuchen. Because the sugar is sprinkled on the dough before it is baked in the oven, there is a different amount on each pastry. But there is always some on top. It's part of it, both visually and flavour-wise. If you can't see the sugar, something is missing. As if the product is imperfect or flawed or not the real thing. And yet it is nothing more than decoration. We are good at noticing when something is missing, especially when it comes to familiar things. It doesn't even have to be very visible - we have a sensorium for it. Sometimes we also notice that our mind is missing something - but this is often drowned out by distraction, diversion, consumption and other things. But the emptiness remains. Do you allow it and pursue it until you find the real thing? I wish you an extraordinary day!

Caramel is something that many people really like. There are caramel sweets or caramel fillings in confectionery or even protein drinks that have a caramel flavour, and more recently it is often combined with salt. It is sweet and has its own flavour. But if you think about how caramel is made, you might be surprised: caramel is basically burnt or almost burnt sugar. The process of burning the sugar gives it its colour and consistency and preserves the sweetness of the sugar. Who would say that they really like a burnt product? There is something bizarre about this, but also something hopeful: it shows that something good can come out of damage. So if something bad has just happened to you, don't feel hopeless or disappointed. Maybe it was a stroke of luck that it happened. I wish you an extraordinary day!

When you swim, you stand at the edge of a pool or on a diving platform or board, or in nature on a ledge with the water in front of you. In an outdoor pool, you can see the bottom of the pool because it is not very deep and the water is very clean. This is not always the case in nature, especially in deep rivers, where the water can be murkier and less transparent. Then comes the moment to jump. Sometimes you need a lot of courage, sometimes not. It's also a question of character. When we dare to do something new, something we've never done before, it's like jumping into the water from a place or height we've never jumped from before. Then comes the brief moment when the old, solid ground is no longer there and the new, water is not yet there. Although very brief, these moments are very intense and can stay with us for a long time. Courage to make choices and wisdom to exercise restraint when necessary. That's what I wish for you today. I wish you an extraordinary day!

Many vehicles and ships have a steering wheel. As far as I know, it is round and can be turned in both directions. I don't know if these wheels can be turned more than once, but at least they have no beginning or end. When you get into the car, you can't tell from the steering wheel whether the wheels are straight or turned in. Because of the circular shape of the wheel, the steering wheel is always the same and has no markings for a quasi-normal straight-ahead position. This is not the case with a bicycle or motorbike. They use handlebars and handlebars to steer. You can see immediately whether the front wheel is straight or not. Also, a handlebar cannot be turned around its own axis at will. Handlebars usually require more space and room to manoeuvre than a wheel. This is perhaps why a car has no handlebars and a bicycle has no steering wheel. Situational versatility to suit the purpose. I wish you an extraordinary day!

The other day I dreamt that I was on a train heading towards the station where I live. In my dream I suddenly looked out of the window and the surroundings didn't look familiar at all. I knew that I was on a train going to a neighbouring country. And that's obviously how it must have happened: I must have fallen asleep during the journey and missed the exit. I wasn't in the right place at the right time, and the people who were expecting me on time waited in vain. Even though I got off as quickly as I could and found the next train back, I was too late. In the wrong place at the wrong time. So it can happen that we set out on a journey and everything is right. But then we miss the right moment to recognise when that journey is over and we should leave it. Be awake, stay awake. That's how we succeed. I wish you an extraordinary day!

When I went into the bathroom the other morning, still quite tired, and just wanted to wash my hair over the bath, I turned on the water as usual to temper it before picking up the shower head. The shower was hanging in its fixture as usual, with the shower head facing me. You can guess what happened next... the setting was not as usual, so the water came out of the tap and I could then switch to the shower at the correct temperature, but the setting was already on the shower head. I was splashed all over my clothes and the bath was accordingly wet. Not an ideal outcome when you're tired and pressed for time. My first thought after the spontaneous trouble was - who was that? Certainly not me. I'll deal with that later, I thought. But then I thought. Maybe it was my fault, and I realised once again how quick we are to blame others for our failings instead of looking at ourselves first. I wish you an extraordinary day!