Day 29. A day, a lifetime

Meeting people on the road is easy but making real friends is something else. Now and then it happens. It can be easy too. You meet, you spend a day together and it feels as if you've known each other a lifetime.

The same day I wrote a long story about loneliness I was invited by somebody I hadn't even seen. The woman at the information office told me there was an artist in town who might like to meet me. She made a phonecall, we arranged to meet in the evening. At 20.00 we were drinking wine while talking about everything.
It is a lot, everything, so the next day I stayed instead of leaving early as planned. We had lunch together and watched a Butoh dancer on a computerscreen. Slowness, precision, trust, improvisation. Renate and I share an interest in slow things, in repetition, in certain materials. In vulnerability and ephemeral things. She told me how she woke up from a dream one day, knowing that she had to start learning how to make ceramics. That is how she became an artist.

We talked about the past and the future. We walked around an old mill she was planning to rent, she invited me to start a new life in Bad Laasphe and I was tempted but now is not the time to think about the future. Now is the time to think about now and now I am leaving and staying in equal measures. So I left, it was late again. She packed the leftovers from the lunch for me, lamb chops and cookies. I said goodbye. For now.

I slept in the toiletbuilding, in the showerroom. Leaving my tent empty for the third night in a row. I used the toilet as a chair. Improvisation is important when it is cold and rainy. It was warm and dry inside. I slept like a baby. I had no dreams.