Sunday, 23 November.

4:45 AM: The boiling water I poured into in my light blue mug is cooling down. I look through the window, into the cold darkness of this early winter morning. All I can see behind the condensation is a blurry glow of a street lamp. To my own surprise, I am not the slightest bit sleepy. I feel awake and alert. I slept about six and a half hours. To have more time to prepare before going out, I didn’t meditate after waking up. I sit down at the kitchen table, open my notebook, and write:

intuitive early morning walk mitte

-> no permit for boulevard [yet], and my tentative deadline is today [last filming day] – therefore:

walk from potsdamer platz to wherever it takes me. follow the light. be aware, alert, and confident. relaxed and at ease. no worries about any potential outcome.

be curious [playful shots]. ‘route’ mindset.

film everything i love.

the less details the better.

5:01 AM: I get dressed and leave the apartment. I barely feel a difference between now and 8:30 pm last night, when I went on a walk with C. before going to bed. Winter in Berlin can be timeless, make you lose your zeitgefühl.

5:12 AM: I get on the S1. The warm air in the car comforts me. So does the fact that there is no one else inside. I meditate. With my eyes open, and a soft gaze. Two or three stops into the ride, a couple of people get on. I close my eyes.

5:26 AM: Nächste Station: Potsdamer Platz. I open my eyes. The people around me have disappeared. I get off the S1.

6:50 AM: I turn off my camera. I take off the thin work gloves I wore as a makeshift solution to protect my hands from the cold. I walk through the bike parking garage at Potsdamer Platz, back toward the S-Bahn. Shortly before descending the stairs that lead out of the garage into the station hall, I stop.
I get out my camera again. I have noticed a closed door I didn’t pay attention to from the previous direction when I entered the garage. I film it.
Just as I stop the recording, a man enters the garage and rides up the escalator — the first person I have seen in here since I entered. It is my sign to leave. Time to go home.

On 21/22 September, I set myself 23 November as the deadline for filming for Wdy…?
When I wrote down my vision for the project in Ulm, it included filming four different locations. Since I didn’t have the permit to film at what I envisioned to be the fourth and final location before the end of my deadline, I wanted an alternate, spontaneous solution that would fulfill my vision of four locations so I could move on.

When I arrived at Potsdamer Platz on the morning of 23 November, I left the station and started walking intuitively — just as I had planned when I sat at the kitchen table after I woke up. I explored the Sony Center for 15 or 20 minutes, menschenleer, wandered through the streets surrounding Potsdamer Platz, between the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott, toward Tiergarten. The further I walked, the more I filmed, the more I noticed it didn’t feel right. What presented itself didn’t look, didn’t feel like my vision for Wdy…? So I headed back.

It struck me when I passed through the Potsdamer Platz bike parking garage on my way to the S-Bahn and noticed the closed door at the side of the path that led through the garage:
It is impossible to predict how things will evolve, no matter how committed we are to our vision. What is possible, though, is to observe and be with what presents itself. To look for where the path leads us naturally. And closed doors help identify that path.
They make life easier. They make life simpler. Closed doors nudge us to move forward. [Even if it sometimes requires trying out a few things to not worry about certain doors being closed.]
Maybe some doors that are closed now will open in the future. Maybe they won’t. I’m going through the open ones instead of waiting in front of those I wish were.

Is there a closed door in your life right now that you could simply walk past instead of waiting for it to open?

Enjoy your day [or night].

glg Soda

Sunday, 23 November.

4:45 AM: The boiling water I poured into in my light blue mug is cooling down. I look through the window, into the cold darkness of this early winter morning. All I can see behind the condensation is a blurry glow of a street lamp. To my own surprise, I am not the slightest bit sleepy. I feel awake and alert. I slept about six and a half hours. To have more time to prepare before going out, I didn’t meditate after waking up. I sit down at the kitchen table, open my notebook, and write:

intuitive early morning walk mitte

-> no permit for boulevard [yet], and my tentative deadline is today [last filming day] – therefore:

walk from potsdamer platz to wherever it takes me. follow the light. be aware, alert, and confident. relaxed and at ease. no worries about any potential outcome.

be curious [playful shots]. ‘route’ mindset.

film everything i love.

the less details the better.

5:01 AM: I get dressed and leave the apartment. I barely feel a difference between now and 8:30 pm last night, when I went on a walk with C. before going to bed. Winter in Berlin can be timeless, make you lose your zeitgefühl.

5:12 AM: I get on the S1. The warm air in the car comforts me. So does the fact that there is no one else inside. I meditate. With my eyes open, and a soft gaze. Two or three stops into the ride, a couple of people get on. I close my eyes.

5:26 AM: Nächste Station: Potsdamer Platz. I open my eyes. The people around me have disappeared. I get off the S1.

6:50 AM: I turn off my camera. I take off the thin work gloves I wore as a makeshift solution to protect my hands from the cold. I walk through the bike parking garage at Potsdamer Platz, back toward the S-Bahn. Shortly before descending the stairs that lead out of the garage into the station hall, I stop.
I get out my camera again. I have noticed a closed door I didn’t pay attention to from the previous direction when I entered the garage. I film it.
Just as I stop the recording, a man enters the garage and rides up the escalator — the first person I have seen in here since I entered. It is my sign to leave. Time to go home.

On 21/22 September, I set myself 23 November as the deadline for filming for Wdy…?
When I wrote down my vision for the project in Ulm, it included filming four different locations. Since I didn’t have the permit to film at what I envisioned to be the fourth and final location before the end of my deadline, I wanted an alternate, spontaneous solution that would fulfill my vision of four locations so I could move on.

When I arrived at Potsdamer Platz on the morning of 23 November, I left the station and started walking intuitively — just as I had planned when I sat at the kitchen table after I woke up. I explored the Sony Center for 15 or 20 minutes, menschenleer, wandered through the streets surrounding Potsdamer Platz, between the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott, toward Tiergarten. The further I walked, the more I filmed, the more I noticed it didn’t feel right. What presented itself didn’t look, didn’t feel like my vision for Wdy…? So I headed back.

It struck me when I passed through the Potsdamer Platz bike parking garage on my way to the S-Bahn and noticed the closed door at the side of the path that led through the garage:
It is impossible to predict how things will evolve, no matter how committed we are to our vision. What is possible, though, is to observe and be with what presents itself. To look for where the path leads us naturally. And closed doors help identify that path.
They make life easier. They make life simpler. Closed doors nudge us to move forward. [Even if it sometimes requires trying out a few things to not worry about certain doors being closed.]
Maybe some doors that are closed now will open in the future. Maybe they won’t. I’m going through the open ones instead of waiting in front of those I wish were.

Is there a closed door in your life right now that you could simply walk past instead of waiting for it to open?

Enjoy your day [or night].

glg Soda