Lens-Artists Challenge #94 – “home”

The German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey once sang a wonderful song about parentship. The title is “Keine ruhige Minute” (not a quite minute).

He describes lovingly the changes which come into your life when you get your first kid. He is wondering, what he has done with all the time before the kid was born and what all changes: i.e. repair toys, being a horse for the kid, loud noise, and so on.

The chorus is

Keine ruhige Minute
Ist seitdem mehr für mich drin
Und das geht so, wie ich vermute
Bis ich hundert Jahre bin!

(Not a quiet minute
Since then, there’s more in it for me
And that’s how I suspect
Until I’m a hundred years old!)

As the song goes on, the perspective changes. Instead of complaining, he starts noting all the positive things he gets from the kid. One of the verses says:

“Ein Haus wird doch erst ein Zuhause
Wenn eine Wiege darin steht!”

(a house only becomes a home when there is a cradle in it)

In the German language, there is a big difference in meaning between “house” and “home”. while you can have many houses and live in different places over the years, only one can be your home. The home isn’t necessarily the one your currently living in. Often it’s the place where you grew up. A place with very strong feelings and where you know quite everything about. Maybe it’s the farm of your grant-parents or the quarter where your parent’s house stood. In either case it’s the place where your heart beats stronger when coming nearer to it. And this connection keeps strong over the decades and survives even the passing of the beloved people (grant-parents / parents / aunts / …) who used to live there.

You wonder, what I’m telling here? It’s time for Lens-Artists Photo challenge and Amy asked for “At home“. I have 3 adult kids. But, todays 10 years ago, we got a cradle in our kitchen. Our cat got 4 pretty babies. When the time came, 2 of them moved to another family. But the oldest and the youngest stayed with us. The mother, unfortunately, died, when her kids were about half a year. The youngest is also not with us anymore. She died these days 3 years ago.

In the image below the kittens are 4 weeks old.

Here’s a quote from the birth announce:

“Last night our family grew enormous. Our cat gave birth to 4 kittens. One kitten every about 90 minutes starting at 8:30 p.m. At first she gave birth to 2 black girls, than a tabby girl and at last a tabby boy.

Even the mother is only about 9 month old, she did it very well.”

It seemed, after 2 babies the mother ran out of black color 😂. Not I was the one who stacked the kittens. The mother did it and even the kittens themselves were constantly climbing one over each other. When living outside in the wild they can warm each other.

In case you’re now interested in the whole song and the lyrics, both can be found online quite easily. By using Google you can find the lyrics and put them into the Google translator. The translation is quite good. By using Youtube you can also find a recording taken from a 1980s tv show. Even if you won’t understand a word, give him a try 😊. You will get to know a famous german singer. Although was born in 1942 and his career started in the early 1960s, he is still well-known for his intelligent lyrics which often make you smile.

Take care!