A place to stay
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| my room in berlin |
A place to stay can mean many different things. It could be simply a shelter under which you sleep every night. It could be a tent that you carry on your back and that is your home wherever you need to sleep. It can also be a house, a flat or a room. In my case it is a shared flat in Berlin, Germany. But for a German citizen I have the privilege to travel and stay almost everywhere on earth (I know a lot of people don't have that privilege and I find that so unfair and stupid). With that privilege comes the question "Where should your home be?". Should I stay in my hometown Berlin? Or could I also imagine living somewhere else?
I lived in San Francisco for about a year when I was 11 years old. I now stay in Morocco for a few months every year. I lived in South Tirol for half a year in 2009. But I feel very rooted in Berlin. Not only because of the city itself, but because of the people here. I have a community of open minded and playful people around me. My generation of Berliners is really about staying a child in some ways. And I don't mean in a stupid way, but in a very wise kind of way. The people here have realized that it's not about the money or about being serious and having a big car, the people here have come to the wisdom, that being happy is the thing we should strive after. And being truly happy means, the people here stay playful, they enjoy, they care about the things around them, they want to live a good life with less stress, more laughter and with everyone around them being happy.
Like most Berliners my age I live in a shared flat. We are 4 flatmates in one of these big old flats of the Berlin houses that were build before 1920. We call these houses "Altbau" which means something like "oldbuild" and has it's special charm. Our ceilings are more than 4 meters high, the walls are made of bricks and the floor is made of wooden planks like the ones used on a boat. I love this flat and we get many compliments from visitors. And it's really affordable for a philosophy student like me.
For me the key to being happy in my home is minimalism. I really love having enough space for my thoughts and giving only few well chosen objects the space to be recognized. Minimalism is really a lifestyle and a thing you can get into as a hobby as well. For me it means being free of clutter and free of things that make my life heavy and chaotic. I'm definitely planning to make another post about minimalism, because it is such a good thing.
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| giving this cactus all the attention it needs |
Another thing I really love for making my place the place where I want to stay are plants. That's why I searched for a room with a balcony and a lot of light. Plants are so beautiful, they also produce oxygen and clean the air for you. And green is the color that gives you relieve and makes all the stress of the day go away. It's also fun to grow your own plants out of avocado pits and other things.
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| my own banana tree |
For making my place a healthy place to stay, I used only natural materials like wood for the furniture and chalk to paint the naked walls white. Chalk is really cheap, totally natural and it also keeps the air clean. No fungus can grow on chalk walls and the white is very bright and reflecting the light almost like snow.
What does "a place to stay" mean for you?
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