Another year has passed. Naturally, it has been totally different than the year spent traveling. Nevertheless, it has been a year that I am again deeply grateful for.

I am working again. (Sometimes necessary ;-) Mandatory part of life: Checked! A big thanks goes out to Jan, Steffen, and Felix for helping with their network of contacts. Another big thanks to all the awesome colleagues for being so much fun to work with! Much appreciated!

Even more grateful I am for my friends and family here in Germany, who all welcomed me back with arms wide open. It’s hard to express in words. But having soo many soo good friends often moves me to tears. Tears of joy, happiness and a deep deep feeling of gratitude! Aside from these long grown friendships, I am often surprised, how connected I still feel to many of you guys I’ve met on the trip. You have made this trip special. You are still having a major positive impact on my life here back home. And there is a bunch of new amazing people that I was allowed to meet in 2012. It is a blessing to be with all of you. Thanks for staying in contact. Thanks for thoughts, status updates, phone calls, mails, postcards, letters and time spend together. Thanks for deepening our friendship. Thanks that you are all just these wonderful people you are. Thanks for being part of my life. Thanks, thanks, thanks!

It was and still is a bit difficult to fit work and non work time into a good balance, thus there are many letters and mails I did not write. Many calls I did not make. Many get togheters I did not attend. Sorry for that. Once again. However, you can be more than sure that I did think of you very often. You have not been forgotten… and I am really looking forward to meet all of you again!

For now, let me quote two great spiritual masters who wonderfully expressed my wishes for all of you and this whole miraculous planet earth in 2013:

For as long as space remains,
for as long as sentient beings remain,
until then may I too remain
to dispel the miseries of the world.

[Shantideva]

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

[Prayer of Saint Francis]

I wish all of you a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!
See you soon, Michael