URI Europe Proverb, October 2017

'The state of nature is a state of war' said Thomas Hobbes. Every warrior has a convincing and distinct reason why the other should be destroyed: he kills to 'live'. History teaches us that if we do not succeed in conquering every 'warfare', struggle will be our permanent condition.

We rise against the old motive that characterises biological life: to kill in order to live. During the previous centuries humankind made conscious choices, not only because our insight and knowledge increased, but also because we took charge of our responsibility along the way. We exchanged the old principles and tried to find a morally justified way of dealing. While thinking about our behaviour we acquired a morality that allows us to live life in such a way that there is a life and a future for everyone.

URI Europe Proverb, September 2017

Ask any traveler about their strongest experience and a story of an encounter invariably follows. When we meet people not only face to face, but 'heart to heart', we experience this as something special.

When travelling, each one of us recognizes the feeling of being out of one's comfort zone.

Far away everything is different. Also the people. When we position ourselves at eye level of the 'foreigner' , we come to know him with an open mind , we enter his world and everything becomes different.

URI Europe Proverb, August 2017

One hears language of war here and there as a reaction to acts of terror worldwide. In his opinion column David Van Reybrouck pleads for other forms of resoluteness than war language. Immediately after the attacks in Norway the Prime Minister Stoltenberg pleaded frankly for "more democracy, more openness, more participation". In this climate of violence we need this connective thinking. Violence starts indeed where people allow themselves to be played off against each other and point at innocent people.

URI Europe Proverb, July 2017

Life is demanding and unpredictable, uncertain and complex. People are 'here' while they want to be 'there'. With their agenda in hand they run.
They do not have time for breakfast, no time for the children, no time for themselves, because they are busy, busy, busy. That is why, more often than we think, unrest grows in many relationships. People become tired.

URI Europe Proverb, May 2017

Which face are you wearing? Look in the mirror at your face. Not at your hair or your make-up. Look further and deeper. You live behind your face. It is your face that tells who you are.

Are you wearing a mask that adapts according to the circumstances? Flattering and lovable towards the people above you? Hard and cold for those that are beneath you? With a standard smile to sell or because you are paid to do so, joyful in the pub and indifferent at work? Challenging in traffic and closed at home?

URI Europe Proverb, March 2017

The Middle East is a hotbed. One big tangle where it is unclear who is the enemy and who the friend. Syrians live between a regime that stops at nothing and IS. Afghanis, Yemenites – and many others - live in a constant war situation. When in this conflict, you have lost your house, belongings and loved-ones, you are left with no choice. The only option is to flee. To leave all misery and distress, destruction and death behind. Are we still surprised that Europe is a predictable refuge?

At the moment we may be wondering if the worst was over. The refugee door is ajar at this moment, but no one knows whether it may again open widely.

URI Europe Proverb, February 2017

You are in the supermarket pushing a cart. You are in front of the shelves with apples that are neatly stored according to taste, kind and variety. It is fruit you need for your health and you buy it, if the price is acceptable. You look at the quality label and then put a pack of six in your cart and go to the till.

It is not because you look that you see.

Your biological eye sees shapes and different colours. But do we actually 'see' what we are 'looking’ at?

URI Europe Proverb, January 2017

To greet each other is a universal thing. Everybody does it , everywhere and in every culture. Even when you have not met each other before, you become less 'strange', because you tell the other person: I have noticed you. This way you create a bond, you uplift him and you change the atmosphere. Therefore to greet creates togetherness.

URI Europe Proverb, December 2016

She is too young.

The verdict of the doctors and science were painfully clear: the illness in her body was irreversible. She would die. The light went out. Everything turned black. An endless dark tunnel with only the unknown. Sadness, anger, fear, confusion and panic. The nights were awfully empty and hopelessly insane. There was no direction, no aim, no sense anymore. Nothing.

URI Europe Proverb, November 2016

After a bad night your partner joins you in a grumpy mood at the breakfast table . Your 'good morning' falls on deaf ears and the coffee does not do its job. You try harder, but nothing seems to work. Maybe your partner needs time to see things more clearly, or maybe he needs some space to put things in perspective? Your reaction is important in determining whether you both come to a discussion later that brings some relief.

To become angry because someone has a bad moment, does not help. That is certainly true. We cannot determine the moods of other people. How can we deal with it? You could try to say something like: "You are entitled to a bad day! If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me".

URI Europe Proverb October 2016

Nature does not know language, at the most sounds.

Man decodes sounds, recognizes them as words or concepts, puts them in logical order and understands them as a message. Language is its tool.

Our reason produces concepts, definitions and structures. It is important to see that our brain always registers a part of reality. The here and now that we observe, is 'but' a product of our brain. We cannot after all understand the whole reality  from reason . There is more next, past and behind the things that we notice.

URI Europe Proverb September 2016

The one who knows himself, is kind to others

Do we know our dark side?

'The Legend of King Ape' talks about a Buddhist monk who undertakes a dangerous voyage with valuable manuscripts on his back. His fellow travellers were 'a monkey, a pig and quicksand', which symbolise evil powers , our dark side. Dark is what is described as bad, where there is no light.

It is a tremendous undertaking to carry the burden safely across the mountains. Continuously they are confronted with dangerous situations. It comes as a surprise that during this adventure the negative forces undergo a change. They come to a new insight, they convert and in the end even become positive forces that ultimately save the monk. This is not brought about by the holy scriptures on his back or their content, but ...

URI Europe Proverb August 2016

Bad luck? Learn and continue!

Life is not a bed of roses. Life can be tough. Worries, bad luck, sadness, injustice or violence can shake us considerably, mark us or trip us up. Everyone of us has had the experience: “how do I get through this?”

On a difficult stretch in our lives an encouraging word can be comforting, but in order to deal with it and overcome it, we are on our own. We cannot determine what will happen to us in our lives, but we can decide how to deal with it. You decide to undergo things as an unresisting victim or to use it as an opportunity.  If you do not try to avoid things and are guided by the thought of what has to be done here, you understand the deeper meaning of life.

URI Europe Proverb June 2016     

How are you...really?

"Hello, how are you? Are you fine? - Yes, and you? - Yes, yes, I am fine too."

And...until the next greeting.

URI Europe Proverb May 2016

Is it possible that, in times of taking care of the future, we look in the wrong direction?

Often society resembles a playground, until you listen to the innner side and get to the bottom of what preoccupies and moves people. When people ask me 'if I have the time to listen to them', often tears fall. Every human being has a 'burden' and there is a lot of hidden pain, more than we want to admit.

URI Europe Proverb April 2016

A true story.

A friend had stacked so much in her attic that one day, everything toppled over and fell down upon the hatch. The access to the attic was blocked. She hoarded so much that in the end, she could not reach it anymore.

Does this sound familiar?

URI Europe Proverb March 2016

When you let go, the problem takes care of itself!

"Sleep on it", is a saying that is ingrained in our daily speech. It invites us to let difficulties sink in, to let go. For us Westerners this is demanding, thus not easy.

We want to understand why things are the way they are.

We Westerners are stuck in the firm logic of Enlightenment-thinking: "I think and therefore I am." The logic that each question can be answered and every problem solved is embedded in our genes. We worry endlessly until it drives us crazy. We think we can solve everything with our mind. We want to control. And this makes us prisoners. We would rather go around in circles than admit that in fact we don't know.

URI Europe Proverb for February 2016  

Real freedom? Learn to let go of yourself

It is not always my wife, my husband, my boss or my environment that wants me to do this or that. Very often we are obstructing ourselves because we are attached to our own judgements. Images we have created ourselves, pictures and labels with which we identify ourselves.

URI Europe Proverb for January 2016  

It is better to have a small ideal than a big capital.

We have got lost in paradise. We have forgotten what the essence of life is all about.

When will man realise that happiness and well-being do not depend upon material things and money?

We already know a long time that it is not about "having", but about "being". One can possess a lot of money, but if one does not have "an inner side", one is poor. Very poor.

URI Europe Proverb December 2015   

The one who beams never walks in the dark

The Western World has its holy cow: the free market economy. GNP and welfare are its arteries. It is convinced that here, now and immediately, everything always has to go quicker and better, while its adage is one of 'always more'. The average westerner is chasing their salary, from early morning till late at night. Their holy cow has eaten every scrap of them in the meantime. As well as the soil that has produced the animal.

URI Europe Proverb November 2015  

Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!

Every one of us is confronted with painful events: unexpected job loss, a friend who betrays you, a partner that cheats on you, someone close who commits suicide. It can shake us up considerably and force us to stand still.

URI Europe Proverb October 2015

What moves mountains? Trust!

Antoine de Saint Exupéry was a passionate searcher. He was passionate about life, about spirituality, the depth of mystery. But, for a long time, for him too the skies remained silent. Notwithstanding all his sustained trials, his prayers were not heard. Until one day he discovered that the biggest mercy of prayer consists in - not being heard.

URI Europe Proverb September 2015  

Many plumes give you strong wings!

Every human being needs encouragement. A baby is encouraged to eat, a toddler and a child are constantly encouraged to walk, to talk and to learn. There is no need to convince any parent of this fact. Children who are encouraged will thrive, grow and improve.

URI Europe Proverb August 2015 

Real friendship - the best therapy

To listen takes time. Most people do not have that time.

When things are at their worst, we go to a therapist with our story. He/she will listen of course for a remuneration. In this way to listen has become a profession, which in itself is not a bad thing.

URI Europe Proverb July 2015 

Travelling? Everything you leave behind is a welcome bonus.

Less is more.

We will also apply this to the commentary: let’s not waste words.

When travelling you consciously try for a short while to leave everything behind you that is routine and to look at things in a new perspective. It is about a change of air, new horizons and meeting different people, isn’t it? That is why travelling is also always to distance oneself a little, to let go.