Folk music is blasting from the Bluetooth speakers. We stomp our feet on the ground while the manual mincer grinds and shrieks away. One of us is turning the handle to a constant rhythm, one is refilling meat into the top. One is cheering us on and humming to the tunes.
When I asked Astrid what she wanted to do while we were visiting she thought for a while. „I have meat in the freezer from sheep I have butchered a while ago. We could make sausages.“ Three large bags waiting for a chance to fill a day with work and laughter.
We take shifts in turning the handle at the mincer and use the hours for talking about healthy, wholesome foods, how grains should be prepared, what else we could ferment, and how we come in balance with our gut.
During the last few days, we’ve been reading different books. From gut health to fermented grains to breathing. It seems all of them fit well together as we piece the information into a whole story. No thought or line from the books is too weird to be spoken out. We give everything a thorough discussion, stumble upon our own persisting beliefs, and decide on one-step-at-a-time thoughts we take for ourselves.
I look around me while my arm gets a little sore from the unknown practice of mincing meat.
The small Danish house from the 15th century delivers the perfect background for these grounding activities and uplifting conversations. The ceilings are low and even lower in the doorways. Wherever you look you find an uneven frame or beam, the floor is tilting to the side which creates a challenge for the office chair to stay in one place and not roll to the other. It is wonderful. I can’t decide where to set up my remote office, so I keep changing places for working on concepts in silence, have Zoom chats with the German network, or record podcasts with Born Global in the US. To the left, I can right now see through a small window. The large chestnut tree in the front has slowly started to grow its fruit. Its presence is soothing. And it reminds me of the old beech tree from the last place. Do I connect places with trees now?
“Bridget, I think you need to take over. Leon is not strong enough.” Astrid loudly comments on my slowing down. I smile and gladly switch places with Bridge.
How wonderful it feels to move with the speed of life.
