Turn of the year – with neighborhood distance

What means neighborhood to me? Familiar environment.

..and what means familiar environment?

When i think of familiar surroundings, several things come to the mind.

The clearest,
my living environment – the homeplace.

So the point where i was born, grew up, or moved to..
.. the city where i am active,
.. the roads i use to get to activities,
.. by foot? car? public transport? metro.. bus..?

Whatever..
even if this place is not locally bound to a specific location
and it may also be experienced as multifaceted

If i experience the same or similar through my five senses over a longer period of time –
i experience it as a known habit.

That includes people and places
..family? ..friends? ..acquaintances? ..workmates?
Which goes with many and different relationships.

and activities
.. work, study, learning?
.. pursuing interests, hobbies?
.. spend time with pleasent people?

and than the sudden interruption

and distance

But.. for what?

To leave this familiar pattern for a few moments
and to go into new circumstances, contexts and worlds of experience.

to present the five senses

sight – hearing – taste – touch – smell

something new

Do I leave my neighborhood, familiar environment, people places and activities really behind?

No.
Mentally I carry them with me in my memory.

and ..

I go into new cultures that are different from mine. In relation to cultural and historical backgrounds, social dynamics – behavior, thinking and perspectives.

The clearer the differences to my neighboorhoof – the clearer I recognize that my inner concepts differ from those around me. In such moments – a opportunity to compare old perspectives and opinions, to question and possibly to change and expand.

What do I want to keep?
What do I want to let go of?
What new things will this make possible? What can i give?

Being in new societies and people with their ways of life and activities can be very inspiring and useful to clean up and restructure inside.

That´s one reason why i like to leave the usual neighborhood at the turn of the year.

Greetings and appreciation to my polish roots! Thank you for the opportunity to be here in Warsaw – to speak english with the locals and to experience Poland again and again.

Pozdrawiam!
Kevin Rutkowski