'La Brace' radiates the heat of the Union (Conclusion)

'O guide our minds with thy blest light,

with love our hearts inflame;

and with thy strength, 

which ne'er decays,

confirm our mortal frame.

Far from us drive our deadly foe;

true peace unto us bring;

and through all perils lead us safe

beneath thy sacred wing.'

Rabanus Maurus

Our Walk continues to the front door of the parliament. A group of 'Gilets Jaunes' is posing in front

of the entrance of the parliament. My eyes looked to Tou Louse who intuitively knew that my being wanted to go and listen to their message. She was hesitant yet she accompanied me in my approach.

A peaceful mind listens to the breath of the heart. No matter what it encounters, it is not influenced by outer circumstances that sing different tones than the melody of the song. 

It is an art to sing together harmoniously. To pass on the spark of life with the vowels that sound like the voice of the heart. 

It is having an ear for all vibes without losing the rhythm that unites all instruments with the choir of their stories.

We stood face to face with Bertrand Hélène and her companions. Together they formed a little group of Gilets Jaunes that expressed their protest symbolically in front of the European Parliament. Most of them came from the South of France. Regions Lézignan, Narbonne were mentioned. Even some people from Switzerland and Belgium were present. They were standing with their flag at the stairs while they made pictures of their symbolical protest against... yes against what? 

My camera filmed the song by Bertrand Hélène who invited her fellow companions to join without result. While she was singing alone my eyes saw in the background the name of Altiero Spinelli. He is referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. 

His 'Ventotene Manifesto' seems far from what he envisioned during his imprisonment. It might be time to read his manifesto to achieve that international unity he aimed for. 

After all these years we still faced the crisis in front of us with opposing voices that all want to be heard. 

Where to start? Where to be the listening to screaming expressions of concerned souls that do love to find harmony with tones that surpass our hearts with fear, sadness, hate towards all who do not give a listening ear. My being felt innate compassion for this grandmother standing in front of me. Showing respect for your elders is coming deeply from within. We all know that from that source all is sprouting with good intentions for a better world. 

Who is to blame? 

'Let us walk each other home.' states Ram Dass.
Let's do it all together.

Grandmother Bertrand Hélène

Watch her song here.

'La Brace' radiates the heat of the union. (Part 2)

'What the soul knows is often unknown to the man who has a soul. 
We are infinitely more then we think.'  Kahlil Gibran

This saying arose from the unexpected meetings at well-known Plux or Place Luxembourg.

'A little manifestation around the statue of Cockerill known for his motto 'Work and Intelligence' attracts my attention. My curiosity joins the group for a moment.
Meanwhile, Tou Louse went for water in a local shop. 
We would meet again in front of the European Parliament.'

Two men standing at the side of the fence catch my eyes.
'What is going on' I asked them?

"We stand up for the freedom for Hungary. The freedom for Europe." 

"'Hungary belongs to Hungarians' and 'Europe belongs to the Europeans'. This is our message that wants to be heard before the European elections take place this upcoming 26th of May."
I ask them to share their message while recording a video. They admit.

Let me first before giving the link to the video share some background information:
One of the men, Gaudi Nagy Tamas, was surprisingly enough one of the organizers of the event. Later in the evening, his profile got revealed by Euractive.com: Politician for a far-right movement for a better Hungary. Lawyer and (past?) member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human rights. Seems he was also a past member of the parliamentary assembly of the Strasbourg based Council of Europe. This possibly because of the ban of some far-right members in 2013 due to their statement about a list of Jews representing a threat to the national security and who were exploiting the Holocaust to dominate the world.

Echoes of fascist policies that led to the Holocaust ran through my veins. My skin shivered.

My being asked how it was possible for representatives of extremist parties to make it to the Parliamentary Assembly?

Democracy?

During my listening to Gaudi Nagy Tamas and his friend Martin de Regt de Bruyn and Budahazy Edda, all against the arrival of fortune seekers, but not against Europe,


I tried to understand their story. 

Their message was against the illegal immigration stream in Europe. Somewhere logical when you dig into the history of Hungary.

• The Turkish war of 1699. 
• 500 000 or  600 000 Hungarian Jews died during the Holocaust. 
• The tensions that are still rising at Gaza. 
• Dual Israeli Hungarian Citizenships.
• The presence of Jewish parliamentarians. 
• ...
• Illegal immigration in Europe.

All this adds up to the pride or is it the fear of these Hungarian patriots. 

Fear to lose their origins? ...
... Or pride that stands with their ancestors who have fought against repression for eras? Still, is that a reason...

• to radicalize? 
• to vilify Jews and the Roma's in their country? 
• to see immigrants as people who deserve fewer rights than the Europeans?

I don't know if the invisible government that wants to destroy Europe like they state in the video is a tactic to gain followers 

or if that is a truth they believe in or that it is true?

It makes me ask 

'what drives Union'? 

The illusion of a fearful mind afraid to be defeated by people of other continents?
Or by some parliamentarians who are up to revenge?

Is that a reason why we have to fight with our swords and why we have to make babies at least two per family? like Budahazy Edda told us while recording her message for the women of Europe?
She is the sister of a famous Hungarian patriot Gyorgy Budhazy who was imprisoned for various militant offenses since 2009. During his imprisonment, she was an official mouthpiece for her brother. He is a rejector of the accession of Hungary to the European Union.

Do we have to join in their combat to free Europe? Hungary?
I look around and see some flags of  'Vlaams Belang' de 'Nederlandse Volksunie'.
Some local leaders are present. Martin de Regt de Bruyn tells me to go and have a word with them. It would give a clue who to vote for he said.

My phone rang. 
Tou Louse was on the other side. 
She asked me to join her. So I did.


I am thankful for our encounter that afternoon at Plux. For we all have a voice. We all have our belief systems. The choice is ours which we like to follow or not. 

We all believe we have truth in our hands. Yet, without mastering our fears, illusions, 
without introspection, the reflection of our thoughts that become words, 
words that become deeds,... the world might become so much more fragmented than it already is
that even our children won't survive in it. 

Which sense does it make to give birth to lives that even have almost no chance to survive?
Let's even not talk about the sense of us using our children as tools to get what we want?

Does a healthy motive need a positive ground to take root? What do you think?

On which base will you let grow your motives? How will you water them?  

Will you nurture them with loving care so that the fruits that sprout from it will harvest the well-being of you, your friends, your city, your country and the rest of the world?

Or will you give your motives the fear and revenge whereto the harvest might even become more destructive than ever imagined?

The choice is yours.
You have a voice, you have a vote. 

Use it consciously, wisely. 

So that the world we live in becomes a natural union
so we won't have to combat for it.

Remember,

'A diamond is just charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well.'

Rest assured #thistimeiamvoting consciously. You too?

Link to Part 1 of La Brace

Link to the video of Gaudi Nagy Tamas and Martin de Regt de Bruyn

Link to the video of Budahazy Edda 

'La Brace' radiates the heat of the union. (Part 1)

No, We don't have a garden.

It attracts insects, mosquitos, dirt.

But we do have a terrace.
Great! Do you mind us sitting outside?
His eyebrows frowned by our insistence.
Yes, you can.
It's not that we are complicated women, we laughed.
Oh, I love difficult women.
His voice became more alive now.
Do you have a sunshade joked my friend playfully?
His attention span became wider.

So, it was the moment to ask him more about his life as a restaurant owner.

He, Italian by heart, left Italy together with his parents when he was a little boy. 

They were farmers and could not live from their work.
Thanks to the existence of Europe they could easily start a new life in Brussels. So they did move to Belgium.
At 16 years he started to work in a restaurant in Brussels.
Because that was the only opportunity he got from Belgium he joked. He worked himself up unto the man he is now.

 He proudly said to be a restaurant owner for 45 years.

And he was not planning to stop, no, he was going to enlarge.
Yes, he feels the unity while hearing the word Europe.
No, he has no reason to leave Brussels except for the weather.
He is even willing to buy the building next to his restaurant to enlarge its capacity.
His story of success made me wonder about the encounters that sprouted from that sunny afternoon that started at the terrace of La Brace.
Together with my friend Tou Louse we ate a delicious plate of pasta. It is my conviction that when they serve you a good plate of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio you can rest assured it is a good restaurant. 

It's worth the visit when you are in Brussels.

We walked towards place Leopold. The warm sun's rays touched our skin with a gentle breath. We entered the museum of the history of Europe to take a pitstop in the bookshop. Little teabags of famous politicians like Macron, queens like Elisabeth and even her grandchildren got a bag. Remarquable was to see William pictured with his spouse Catherine while Harry got the pin just married on his costume. No traces of Meghan were shown, Soit.



Our walk continued to the backyard of the European Parliament. The garden was in full bloom while ostriches weres sculpted with their heads in the sand. Time to wake them up? My hand felt like kicking their asses to get them upright again.

Just to remember that history can repeat itself. Unless we learn the lesson I thought while looking at a piece of the Berlin wall. 

These pilgrimages towards divine destinations must make sense. Do they?

Go to Part two