Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. 2020 has been an extremely challenging and difficult year for all of us. On this special Christmas holiday, our thoughts and prayers are with the forgotten and lonely souls in the refugee camps, shelters, orphanages, retirement homes, and hospitals.

Let’s hope and pray for a better 2021 for everyone. And here are the Lessons and Reminders for myself for 2021!

Be grateful for what you have and for what you don’t have! How often do we complain about the things that we don’t have in life? Too many times! Instead, we should focus on the blessings that we have and never ever compare our life with others. Because let’s face it, we never really know what people are going through. Most of us are struggling in one way or the other. Some have serious mental and health issues, others have financial problems and are struggling to survive. And the worst ones are those who are either lonely or stuck in toxic relationships! So reminder for myself: Be grateful regardless of what you think you miss in your life! 

Distance yourself from negative and toxic people. They are poison for your mind, heart, and soul. When you are going through a difficult time like in 2020, you realize even more how important it is to be surrounded by positive and optimistic people. The last thing you need is more negativity! A reminder for myself: Surround yourself only with people with positive energy. People who lift your spirit and don’t knock you more down than you already are!  

You can’t fix broken relationships unless both sides really care and act. This is a lesson that apparently I have to remind myself over and over again. When you are young and still clueless about life, you never think that the difficulties of life will separate you from your family. You never think that new partners and relationships, a circle of friends, jobs and life circumstances, and obstacles will destroy relationships to your blood-related family until reality hits you and you wonder what happened and how you missed the fallout.

This was an unusual year and I think like many other people I tried to reconnect with my family members living across the globe. Even those who have hurt and disappoint me in the past. And yes I learned my lesson once again. People who have hurt you in the past will hurt you again. People who have disappointed you will disappoint you gain. People who didn’t care about you in the past won’t care for you in the present. People who have been disrespectful to you will be disrespectful again. It is what it is! People don’t change! They keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again! The sooner we accept this, the less we suffer! The sooner we stop them from hurting and disappointing us again the wiser! A reminder for myself:  Blood makes you related but love and loyalty make you family. And when there is no loyalty, there is no family! For the Love of God STOP fixing broken relationships with family members, who couldn’t care less about you and your well-being!

"Leonardo, Humans Just Don't Care!" New Release for Xmas 2020!

LEONARDO - Humans Just Don't Care!

Leonardo is a young and hopeless dog with a difficult life journey full of emotional and physical obstacles. After leaving an animal shelter he ends up in an orphanage in the heart of Florence. But the manager and the children treat him so badly that he runs away in the darkness of the night in hope of finding love and kindness. After a stressful journey filled with struggles, he ends up in the capital city of Italy, in Rome, and has only one goal. He wants to meet Pope Francis and ask him why he sees humans but not humanity. Why humans treat each other and him so badly and why they just don’t care! 

My Voice for the Voiceless

During our many visits to major cities like Rome in Italy, we have experienced unfortunate people sleeping on the streets, while residents of the cities, national and international tourists walk by daily without taking notice and we’ve been wondering why. It is heartbreaking and shameful to look out of your fancy and warm hotel room with your comfy bed, while helpless humans struggling and surviving on the freezing cold streets just a few footsteps away and are only covered with newspapers. It is a tragedy of humanity how ignoring homeless people has become normality. It is a scandal how we look away and don’t act. Every single human being deserves a life of dignity. Every single soul deserves to be taken care of. Every single human being deserves to experience love and kindness, whether it is a child in an orphanage or homeless people and refugees on our streets. The story of Leonardo is my voice for the forgotten souls!

 

Read My Mind Issue 2020 out now!

 

2020 has been a crazy year for all of us. Who would have thought that toilet paper would become such a popular product? COVID-19, social distancing and face masks have changed our entire life. Normality is what we all pray for. Normality is what we all need ASAP!

Many people say that thanks to Corona they have realized what life is really about and how important family and friends are. To be honest for us nothing has changed. We live in a country where people, family, friends, working colleagues, and neighbors are practising social distancing even before the Pandemic crises. Loneliness and social isolation are part of Swiss culture. So Corona hasn’t changed our life at all.

What we really miss though is traveling. We love discovering new cities. Not being able to get away for a few days or weeks has been extremely challenging for both of us. So we used the time and published eight new stories. Some of our books have been also translated into Italian and Spanish. You find them all in this magazine. We also had time to watch great series on Netflix that we reviewed here with 4 or 5 stars.

We hope you enjoy browsing this free online magazine and wish you and your loved ones a lovely and stress and corona free Christmas!

Let’s all hope and pray for a normal 2021! 

Lily & Sima

 

READ MY MIND ISSUE 2020  

Lemon, When Later Becomes Never

 

Dear Dog & Book Lovers please meet my Ambassador Lemon. This heartbreaking story is available in English and German and is inspired by a bittersweet true story. 

Lemon is a cute little dog living in a refugee house in Zurich city. His owner has taken care of asylum seekers in Switzerland for many years. Almost weekly new families arrive and Lemon is there to welcome the humans. He is also there to cheer everyone up in a difficult time with his cuteness, love and tenderness. Lemon is used to seeing families come and go, but the story of Mansour, a little boy, and his heartbreaking destiny changes Lemon’s life forever.

My Voice for the Voiceless

In loving memory of Mansour M. (1982 – 1992)

Lucie, Der Duft von Stille

Lovely books and dog lovers my heartbreaking story "Lucie, The Smell Of Silence" is also available in German. 

"Lucie, Der Duft von Stille" ist eine inspirierende Geschichte für junge und junggebliebene Leser. Lucie erzählt ihre Lebensgeschichte, während sie in einem Rettungsboot festsitzt, das den Ozean vom Nahen Osten nach Europa überquert, nachdem ein Krieg über Nacht ihr Leben zerstört und sie ihr Zuhause verloren hat. 

Meine Stimme für die Stimmlosen

Kriege zerstören nicht nur Menschenleben, sondern auch das Leben von Tieren. Sie vernichten auch die Schönheit der Natur und werfen die Länder Jahrzehnte, wenn nicht sogar Jahrhunderte in ihrer Entwicklung zurück. Leider kann jeder obdachlos, staatenlos und zu einem papierlosen Flüchtling werden. Wenn man alles und jeden verloren hat, den man liebt, gibt es nur noch einen Hoffnungsschimmer: Den Glauben an eine bessere und sichere Zukunft. Dies ist die Botschaft dieser pädagogischen Geschichte für das Lily4Refugees-Projekt.