Categories for My story

No idea

I have dreams. Many dreams. Most are about someone out there who will fall in love with me. And i will fall in love with him. And we live on very happy together. Somewhere. Maybe even here in Rotterdam. In a house with a garden. My own garden. Rather big of course. And i will make it work. With a compost heap, rain falling in a water butt, a lovely smelling rose garden, a vegetable plot, herbs growing close to the kitchen. And we will have many people coming by and i will cook lovely food and bake cakes. And we will talk about the world and the companies and how things could be improved. And sometimes we go out and travel and visit the Oscars where i will wear this beautiful white and yellow and golden dress and i will go on television and do my best and listen to the people and try to make sense of it all and answer their questions as good as i can. And i will meet politicians and scientists and business people and talk with them about the world and which way we are heading and maybe we can prevent terrible things from happening.

Dreams.

I am still here, living in Rotterdam. I do bake cakes. I do work in the gardens around me, close to my home. Where i am allowed to keep on living for the next year and a half.

I don’t know what will happen. To me. To this world. Nobody knows what will happen.

Dreams. Dreams about another life, somewhere glorious.

But my life already is wonderful. I already do feel happy. With all the little things. The people living around me. Ordinary people i chat with. Or simply say good morning to in passing. I love living. I don’t worry.

Yes, i am working on my next videoclip. Filming people passing by, little children playing in the center with water features, older people sitting on a bench and feeding birds. I love it. Sitting outside in the center of the city and looking out and smiling and filming and trying to see a few thing in a new way.

I am not sure what will happen to me. I hope someday i will be so busy i do not have time to dream. That my life is so filled up with things to do i am happy to come home and relax a bit. And yes, that someday i will fall in love. I hope that will happen. But that is still hidden in the future. I don’t know what will happen.

I have changed myself. Changed the way i feel, changed the way i look out at the world. I have grown happier.

Happy. Here. Right now.

Published on August 7, 2018 at 6:00 by

Random thoughts

The past two years i have been working in the garden. I haven’t been looking for working. A few things i turned down. Not my thing. No experience with the requirements. It doesn’t feel like i actively stopped looking for work. It slipped away.

A few days ago i had a short talk about the videoclip Spring i made. I still need to learn so many things. About filming, about editing, about what thoughts i can put into it. I do know i need to stay close to my life as it is right now.

It is difficult since almost everyone has a passive knowledge of how these videoclips should look. Our lives are saturated with commercials, movies, videoclips. It is hard for me to go through this and try to make something which i like to look at, something from which i can learn. Something new. But also old.

It is difficult. But i can not stop. I do want to get to what i want to say. I do have these images in my mind. I do want to get there.

So yes, gardening is taking a step back. A bit unsure about it. And i wont leave it all together. But the focus is on my work. As it should be.

Published on July 18, 2018 at 6:00 by

Living

Walking around my house, looking at the apartments, rising up in the sky. Listening to the people working in the house besides mine. Looking at the cat playing outside, looking up into the tree.

Looking at the trees. Listening to the birds. Watching the cars passing by. Working in the garden. Eating the courgettes. Opening the garden in the morning. Closing the garden in the evening.

My life is passing by gently. For now.

I am filming. Since last week. People. The people living their own lives.

Hoping i can make something good.

I love to work on it. Filming. Editing. Looking at the clips i have made.

My life for now.

I do look to the sky, the moon when i can see it while i walk to the garden. I think about now. This now which moves on for everybody. Nobody can escape this continuously moving on nowness. You can of course hide in your mind, in another time, in another place. But hiding doesn’t make you escape anything. I love to look at the sky, think of this world as it is. Now.

Published on July 10, 2018 at 6:00 by

Failure

Tuesday morning i got the idea for this post. The thought popped up. I can fail. Easily.

I don’t know why i have my head full of success. Why i do not think of missing my target. I don’t. I do realize that thinking about ways in which i could fail would actually harm me, harm my feeling of security, of certainty. I have said it in conversations; failing is not an option. Success can have many different shapes though. It can range from small to large. From recognition from friends to a global viral success. I don’t know which i want. I shouldn’t think about this too much really. Simply work and make something i like myself, first of all.

I do know when i want to publish the spring movie. Friday 15 June. A month from now. Straight after i will take a break for two weeks from working on ellenpronk.com. There is a wedding in the garden on Saturday 23 June. I will bake eight cakes for that day. A wedding party in Zeeland afterwards. Really looking forward to this day.

I am completely happy with the turns i took in my life. The past three years i have grown more happy and more at ease with myself. Money is an issue of course. The house where i live too. But i still have plenty to live on and one year and eights months i can live here. I hope my life after that will reveal itself to me in the next year.

So no, i don’t see myself fail. I am living my own life, made my own choices. Away from the daily lives of the people around me. I can not see that far into the future. I have hopes. High hopes, sure. But nothing is certain. Nothing is certain for anyone really. We don’t know what will happen in a few minutes. A few days. A few years. Nobody does. Predictions are worth nothing.

I hope you are having a lovely day, whenever you are reading this. Salute!

Published on May 16, 2018 at 6:00 by

Growing up

One of the many times i threw the I Ching, many years ago, i got the sign The Wanderer. I remember thinking, feeling, ‘this is right’. A good meaningful sign for me. For my life. Wandering. Not out and about. Not traveling. But wandering from person to person. From group to group. Not something i want to do, not something i do with intention. Something that happens to me.

The last group i fell into is the gardening group.

I love the garden. I love being in there. I love photographing it. Filming it. Working in it.

I love the people working in the garden. We talk. About our current society. About capitalism. About Marx. About the garden. About anarchy. About Mars. Terra forming Mars. Moving to Mars. No!!

But i do know a large part of me isn’t in the garden. A large part is here, in ellenpronk.com, in lfs.nl. In my photos, my movies, my drawings, my thoughts.

I am still growing up. I do feel progress. I am getting a bit more control over myself. But i still make many mistakes, many ill judgements. Learning every single day. Thinking about the day. Figuring out what to do next. Make my excuses when i need to.

I have this temporary space. A bit of money and a place to live. I am already working on a new movie. It will be a month or two i think before it is finished.

I do believe in myself. I do trust myself.

If i felt a shred of doubt, it would be over. Done for. I don’t feel that.

Salute!

Published on April 5, 2018 at 6:00 by

Mistakes

I am feeling better, slowly. Happier. Cheerful. More daring. Like the dancing back home last week. Something i might have thought about earlier, but never did.

I’m not there yet. Not yet at the end. Still growing, developing, learning. Making mistakes, sure.

Like last Friday in the garden, i went home with an uncomfortable feeling. I wasn’t sure about the end, where everybody was asked to help move a couple of wooden banks. Heavy! I didn’t like it. But i still went along and tried to help as much as i can. But at the end i had a short talk with the one person asking us, telling her i could have left if i wanted to.

Also on Friday i had a talk with some other people. I was extreme, saying things i’m not even sure i believe in.

This Sunday i had a second talk about moving the wooden banks. I think it went better. I could say clearly why i am at the garden, working, photographing, sitting, talking. And no, i am not the hardest worker. I do love to be there, being outside my house, being in nature in the center of Rotterdam.

A second talk was with the person i had the extreme talk with. I apologized. Said i was thinking about many things, questioning many things people say as if it is normal. Which i don’t think it is. But i don’t want to convert anyone, i don’t want to push anyone in my way of thinking.

Other things i’m puzzled by, sort of happy with. The girl that came by two weeks ago. What she said near the end. She was there ‘for a bit’, ‘eventjes’. A couple of times that word popped up. I still think about it. Why was she saying it? To not commit? While nobody was asking her to. But maybe she felt something. Still, it was nice she was there for a couple of hours and worked with us. But it keeps singing in my mind, trying to figure out why she used those words.

So many things to think about.

I an reading The Philosophy of the I Ching by Carol K. Anthony once again. I do enjoy it. It gets its message across clear to me. I still don’t believe in God, but there is a lot more in this book besides that.

Modesty refers to an awareness of that which is higher than ourself – we respect the unknown and recognize the insufficiency of our inferior powers. It means we are determined to be led rather than to lead, that we will flow with events rather than resist them, and that we will remain unstructured in mind rather than defend ourself with fixed ideas. It means that we maintain a certain humility so that we protect our dignity as a sacred trust, and do not sacrifice our higher nature for the sake of our lower nature. This sort of modesty, founded on a continuing conscientiousness, accords with our true, original nature.

Source: The Philosophy of the I Ching, Carol K. Anthony – Download

Published on March 27, 2018 at 6:00 by

Selling my house

Today i will sell my house. At 11.15 i have an appointment at the solicitor.

This is a mixed bag of emotions. One part of me is sad. I will loose ownership of the house i have lived in for the past twenty two years with pleasure. I can remain living here for the next two years, but after that i do need to move out and find another place to live. Two years is nice, but it’s not that long really.

Another part of me is happy. Over the years i have accumulated a decent amount of overvalue. I will get this money at my disposal. I can use this money to live of for the next four to five years.

I will treat myself a bit over the next weeks. My computers are getting old. The newest one is my laptop from 2011. I will upgrade my iPad, my iMac, my iPhone. I will also buy myself a decent camera. I will show you once i get them, together with my thoughts on why these specific items. It will bring new content to ellenpronk.com.

I am fully trusting myself in this. Yes, there is hurt. But also freedom. To make my life my own. To make this place work. To make myself work. More.

Salute!

Published on January 22, 2018 at 6:00 by

My story

In a week’s time i will sell my house. I admit, i feel sad about it. I will remain here for the next two years, so that does soften the blow a bit. I will get some money, from which i can live for the next four or five years.

It is a mixed bag. For now, i feel happy. I will get some new computer stuff. I will keep on working. And two years does feel like a awful long time. I am hoping things will change in that time for me. I will work hard for that.

For now, i will keep on posting as long as i have internet at home. It could be i’m out of it the next few days. Next week it’ll be back on. I do feel tired. But be sure, i will not give up.

Bye bye!

With love, Ellen

Published on January 16, 2018 at 6:00 by