Ralf on fresh air, morning songs, quiet rooms, midnight thoughts, strong coffee, and the small things that help him wake ready for life. The Mayor said he found it difficult to imagine me sleeping. I understand this. I am normally doing something. I am cooking, driving, talking, planning, singing, looking at a machine or thinking…
Peeling Potatoes 56 began with digital rest and ended with glittering unicorns, Viking chess, a laundry crisis on Venus and one silent hour on the Moon. The Mayor arrived emotionally drained. Not slightly tired. Not in need of one more cup of coffee. Emotionally drained. He wanted to hide in a corner, blow everything up…
This week’s Lunch conversation was supposed to be about creative rest. Instead, it became a collection of ordinary moments that quietly explained why we all need one. The first surprise arrived before the conversation had really begun. Rosii wasn’t at work. For someone who usually joins Lunch between lessons and busy days, simply seeing her…
Sometimes a conversation about cooking quietly becomes a conversation about rest, family, and the comfort of knowing exactly how you like things. Some conversations never stay on the topic where they begin. This one started with the summer heat. Babette was tired, the weather was heavy, and everyone was hoping a storm would finally cool…
A conversation about artificial intelligence, curiosity and whether education should fill people with answers—or teach them how to keep asking questions. I entered the conversation with Bruce carrying one simple question. What is all the fuss about? Artificial intelligence is now blamed for almost everything that appears to be going wrong in education. Students will…
A conversation about railway technology became a conversation about judgement, shared knowledge and the courage to prepare for reality. Sometimes a person does not fail dramatically. The calendar becomes too full. The work becomes more complicated. Energy begins to disappear. Every new problem receives the same answer: another hour, another meeting, another promise. Nothing has…
What began as a conversation about emotional rest slowly became a conversation about responsibility, family, quiet worries, and the surprisingly ordinary ways we stop ourselves from truly resting. There is something special about a Friday afternoon. Fruitloop asked me which day of the week makes me happiest, and I didn’t even have to think about…
A conversation about concerts, caravans, mowing the lawn and why active rest may have less to do with stopping than with fully entering the experience. This conversation began with a contradiction. Can rest be active? At first, it sounded like one of those modern expressions that should never have been invented. Surely rest means stopping….
Fabrice began with four hours of sleep, one litre of coffee and a clear plan for the day. From there, the conversation travelled through rain, deserts, night watches, long drives, strange beds and the question of whether rest depends more on comfort or curiosity. This began as a conversation about sleep that restores. But I…
I am writing this on Wednesday evening. Almost twenty-four hours ago, Fruitloop, Fabrice and I were sitting around a Brida table talking about sleep. Fabrice explained how, during his military years, he learned to sleep almost anywhere: on the ground, beside a tree, inside a vehicle, sometimes for only five or twenty minutes. The important…
