A Like-Minded German

Daniel is a friend I made in Zurich. He's originally from the western side of Germany, and when I told him I was going to Landau he said, "Nahhhhhh skip Landau and either go straight to Munich or stay in Zurich one more night. Landau is boring."

When I arrived in Landau, I honestly agreed with Daniel. However, I'm good with boring. I'm good with quiet. I'm good with quaint. And Landau is all of those things.

However, it wasn't until this morning that I truly realized that I was supposed to come to Landau.

This morning I had the pleasure of having breakfast with Michaela, my Airbnb hostess here. She taught me how to properly eat a hard boiled egg, made the best yogurt and fruit mixture ever and also had me try some of her homemade marmalade on some breads. It was quite fun and then we started talking. I truly don't know how we got on the subject, but at some point she said, "I've learned that I'm responsible for myself."

That's when I knew I was meant to come to Landau.

Describing the joy, the elation, and the gratitude I felt when she made the statement will be nearly impossible. She summed up in one sentence one of the greatest lessons I've learned in the last five years. Admittedly one of my challenges is codependency....worrying what others are thinking, overfunctioning for others, care taking, walking out on myself, giving my power away, believing the lie that I'm defined by what I do and my performance.

We went on to talk about how one of my challenges is living in other people's heads and how a lot of the practices I now have on a daily and weekly basis have helped me be more of who I am and be ok with me(and subsequently helped me with my codependent tendencies).

She mentioned a workshop in Zurich that she's a part of based on the teachings of Marshall Rosenberg who taught about Nonviolent Communication. I'll be doing some research on that for sure.

The interesting, amazing and, at the same time, odd thing is that Michaela reminds me EXACTLY of a woman I met in Gainesville a few weeks back at the workshop I attended there. She is truly the German version of this woman. So warm, so caring, and such great boundaries. Even her appearance is similar. Quite unreal to be honest.

Michaela had to leave the conversation to go to work, and I was left wanting to talk more. And you know, that's ok. Maybe that can be a goal for me....to have experiences or conversations that when they are done I want more. How cool would that be?

Dr. Michael Gervais on his podcast, Finding Mastery, talks about how he measures his day by the amount of times his hair stands up on the back of his neck. Now, I wasn't measuring my neck hair this morning, however, that was the feeling talking with Michaela.

I know I was supposed to come to Landau. I took my hand off the wheel and let God direct my steps. And he directed me into the home of a like-minded German woman that I won't soon forget. The conversation this morning is one that I needed so very badly.

Thank you Michaela for your hospitality, honesty, vulnerability and care.