Being in love wearing a paper face mask. (Corona) Flu madness and panic.

Last weekend, with my girlfriend, I was in Bangkok. I don’t follow the news but I noticed that almost everyone was wearing a mask. Finally they start to understand how to protect a bit against the raising air pollution I thought.

Well, that was a wrong idea. It seems that although air pollution increases with the year here, most people are no longer bothering about protecting against it. It’s all about earning money and what about your health?

No, it seemed there was a "Corona" virus outbreak in Wuhan in China and the virus was spreading. Where…? I had never heard of that place. Still a place where around 11 million people live close to each other. I blamed myself that I should have paid more attention to geography lessons in the past.

People were a bit in panic because in Thailand at that time some persons had already become sick and I was told that they kept them in quarantine.

In the subway, more than crowded, I was nearly the only one without a mask. A couple in love protected themselves against kissing and many people were afraid to stand close to Chinese persons. As if 1.4 billion people were sick.

My girlfriend told me that many people avoid shopping centers where many Chinese people are to keep the risk of getting infected by the virus as low as possible. The next day we went to Chinatown. Crowded most with Chinese people and us (not wearing a mask).

Do people still think or just only follow the crowd? Close borders? Avoid the Chinese? Wear a paper mouth cap against this virus? Who brings all those scary stories that make people mad and in panic in the world?

A wonderful thing I saw was a man who lowered his cap to smoke a cigarette. Really something to laugh.

Good times for the industry that produces these masks. They had just finished their work for producing the new air filters for the so-called 'air purifiers'. Now this masks cannot be dragged on. There is certainly a bonus at the end of the year for all the workers.

Memories of my previous work came back. And when I experience this again, the overkill in "safety" and the attempt to control everything is plans and on paper comes back in my mind again.

Not much was known about that Corona virus. Sure is it’s a so far unknown form of flu. So, a new flu virus. And with a paper mouth cap, unfortunately, you won't stop a virus infection. If you have to cough or sneeze and you wear such a mask, you protect your neighbor a little bit. And what about eye protection? Are your eyes not a mucous membrane that could pick up this virus? Walking around with a diving mask might be better.

It is estimated that 56,000 people die every year due to flu (source Wikipedia). And you don't hear me say that's okay. But, apparently just like with the air pollution here, we hardly worry about it. Now about 200 deaths from this new species in just a few weeks. Yes, still bad and sad. You do not want it will be your child, husband, wife or family member and yet ... does it bring any change in this total amount of those 56,000 people we nearly do not bother about?

The website Worldometers.info/coronavirus mentions different numbers. They say every year an estimated 290,000 to 650,000 people die in the world due to complications from seasonal influenza (flu) viruses. This figure corresponds to 795 to 1,781 deaths per day due to the seasonal flu. So what are we talking about?

And it's nice to read and hear on the Dutch news I was watching, that up to now there are no Dutch people involved ... What a crazy comment I hear so many times. Is it less painful or worse???

Just live in a normal way and as always take care of normal hygiene. And continue to enjoy that delicious Chinese food in restaurants, Chinatown and these beautiful people. Don't keep them outside the door. And don't forget to enjoy kissing without a mask when you are in love. 

And, wonderful social media but think first and do not believe all stories. Myths and facts (if it's true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze-33EMoaFY

And for the people in Thailand, a mouth cap against air pollution is doing much better work than against this flu virus. So, keep wearing and even better ... stop burning. Good for yourself, your children and their children who still want to enjoy this wonderful world.

Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.

Raising your child from distance

Let me start by saying that I am from a previous generation. Not as an excuse but more from the point of view of wonder, the learning of new things and yet also the mirroring.

Mid-January it was again the day of the year for me. The granting of my annual visa at the Thai immigration office in Chiang Mai. Last year it took an hour to complete, but due to organizational changes and again new rules, this time it took me seven hours and the next day I also had to go back for one more hour. The great news is that I can legally stay here for another year.

During the office lunch time I visited the nearby shopping center to escape the for a while the for me negative energy of many waiting visitors at that place. I feel pity with the staff who have to work there on a daily base.

In the mall I walked past a store and I saw a nice gift for my girlfriend's birthday. I went inside the store. A neat saleswoman of around forty years showed me what I liked. An I-phone on the desk showed me an around five-year-old boy sitting on a couch in front of the television. And he pressed something there what produced a kind of mooing cow sound in the store. A call from him for his mother, the saleswoman, it turned out. She apologized for a moment and spoke to her son who after a short while went on watching TV again.

I looked at her with questioning eyes and she told him that he was already completely used to it. She had to work (be aware for 10 hours a day) and he was at home. As a joke, I told her that nowadays it's all super modern and easy and that even through Grab or the Foodpanda they have here, she could even order food online for him. She told me she did already for a long time and it made him happy many times he could choose what he wanted her to order. I looked at her in amazement and showed her my little Nokia cellphone. For me this is all new.

Not my thing, I told her. Only thinking is this how you raise your so-called "love babies" these days? It really does not match with me. And yep, I am from an earlier generation. And yep I also know you need to work to earn money but…

When I walked out of the store it said that it might be nice to have a pizza delivered to him that evening. We laughed together ...

Too sad (I think) and perhaps the boy gets a lot of personal attention just before he goes to bed so that he also learns how a short-distance relationship feels.

Plenty of wonder for me.

And not knowing the circumstances… who am I to judge?


Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.

Our construction journey has begun. Building as a meditation.

On December 28 last year we made the decision to finally start our construction journey. And as a surprise, after that decision on New Year's Eve, the first electricity piles went into the ground. Construction journey? Yes.

When we tell family, friends and acquaintances about our ideas, the question is always when we have planned that it will be finished. Everyone is used to the idea that you need to know before you start building when it is finished. And if it is not ready at that time, which very often is the case, then stress will arrive and even 'penalty clauses' will regularly appear.

Not our thing at all. No end date in the picture. It's ready when it is finished. Step by step delivering quality and no (or as little as possible) stress. We have the time.

The construction of our private center with Pyramids is not a project but a process. And how blissful it is that we don't want anything to have to do with SMART management formulations or objectives. Time-bound and very specific? Don’t make me laugh. We will do building applications per part of the process and of course they must be specific. In the meantime, we have time to adjust things for the follow-up process in advance.

Realistic yes. With two feet on the ground. Measurable in retrospect when we see the quality of what we have built with full attention and with our own hands. So afterwards and not before hands. And of course, we calculated the needed budget. And yet better, we have decided that we will always only will start a new branch in process if we have the money for it beforehand. So, every part is completely finished before we take the next step on the journey. We think a nice and good feeling.

Great to be flexible with this method and specially to allow creativity during the process. This way of building feels like meditation.

A notary is currently working on all required legal papers and we are waiting for the first official building permit so that we can actually get to work ourselves.

If we tell others that it might take five or six years, or who knows maybe it will take longer, we see frowning eyebrows. Yep, it's different. We are different and we are not at all in a hurry. Whatever other people are thinking of it.

The climate here, the high temperatures, the intensity of the rainy season and the dry period, pollen (my allergy), wanting to build with your own hands and especially our health are factors that you cannot all control by yourself.

Our approach is to enjoy every day of the process as much as possible. To stop and look back at the end of each day and be proud of what we have learned and achieved together. And if that enjoyment might suddenly come to an end, for whatever reason, (it can happen after all), then we would have enjoyed quite a bit of pleasure in all those days before.

Do you want to follow our construction journey once in a while? Feel invited. Look at: https://pyramidhousethailand.blogspot.com.

We regularly publish our experiences on this blog. Successes and also our setbacks in that process. And that is for sure knowing from that SMART management tool still a bit realistic 😉

Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.

How is owl Otus?

I still regularly receive this question from friends, acquaintances and former guests with whom I was allowed to work here.

I recently came across some photos of him (or her) and not just that. A few months ago I even met Otus again.

I was able to look after this special bird (Collard Scops Owl) for around four years. Kadhow, my dog, and I found him in the forest in early May 2014. Mr. or Mrs. Otus had an owl-friend who regularly came to visit him at night. On the advice of son Rik, who is an animal caretaker in a zoo in the Netherlands, I gave Otus freedom again.

During his stay here at home and at the resort where I worked, he attracted a lot of attention. He became fairly photogenic. Really, it is a special experience an owl for four years in your house.

About two weeks after I gave him back freedom, he came for his first visit and was sitting next to my bedroom on the balcony. How I know for sure it was him (or her)? He is the only "wild" owl with a special ring around his paw that I could use to attach him to a thin chain. So he could sit and watch in trees in the evening if I took him to the several campfire meetings I organized or if he was just sitting in front of the house in the tree in the front yard. Only a couple of times I saw him afterwards.

A few months ago, on the scooter I drove into the forest with Kadhow and my girlfriend to do the evening walk. We talked about Otus and if the devil played with it, when I whistled his melody, I always used to call him, he suddenly showed up and landed on the path in the front light of the scooter. Kadhow happy to see him again. Moments later he flew away again. My girlfriend didn't believe it at first and asked if he would do it again. That is just a matter of trying. And yes, he flew in again to my whistle tones.

So, at least until recently, he was still alive. Great to see.

Apparently Otus made a great impression on various people.

A young couple who worked here with me a few years ago even gave their son as his second first name the name Otus. Nice idea. Otus will go on living at least in that name so to speak.

Everyone is up to date about Otus again.

Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.

What is character? A philosophy.

What is character or nature? That question recently arose after a conversation I had.

I searched Wikipedia and found:

“Character or character is the combination of fixed inner qualities or traits of a person. This combination determines how a person deals with certain things. These are relatively stable assets that are difficult to change, often only after intensive and sustained training or therapy. As a result, the trait distinguishes itself from habit, which is more a learned way of responding to one's environment that one can unlearn. Gained experience influences the character. "

Wikipedia also writes:

“Presumably part of the character is fixed in hereditary characteristics, but it is certain that the environment has a major influence on the character. So, upbringing also has an important influence.

The expression ‘having no character’ means that someone has no will of their own or does not carry it through. "

And yes, in the first part of that description I can agree with what character would mean. With regard to that supplement about where it comes from and how it is influenced, I now have a slightly different philosophy.

The fixation of character and character traits, in my opinion, goes much further than hereditary traits. For me, the base of character is the energy of the soul. As a kind of fingerprint. The soul as a source of power to use that uniqueness that every person has in terms of talents and gifts to share with the world (the why of your life). Spiritual? Perhaps but just a philosophy.

And the environment and that upbringing naturally plays an important role. But not to give shape and direction to character traits, but rather to show to what extent the soul of a person in the performance of his or her specific task (from my training as a talent coach I call it the life mission) is stimulated or, on the contrary, opposed. And it is precisely in the event of opposition that the character shows itself to be stronger because it is a struggle to be able to maintain direction. And that is very often not experienced as positive.

You often hear the remark: "This he or she has from his father, or this from his or her mother or grandmother." That may be similarities, but that does not necessarily mean heredity.

For me, character is the energy of the soul to reach your life goal or mission. A package that you have already received with your birth, not inherited, and that expresses itself to a greater or lesser extent in how you are stimulated or opposed in your life in the performance of your task. A package that travels with lives one on one with that soul, if you look from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy.

And if the expression "Have no character" would mean that someone has no will of their own or does not carry it through, then in my opinion you can almost assume that the same environment or education cited by Wikipedia has failed in stimulating that person in his or her mission but helped to work against it.

Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.