{"id":3333,"date":"2021-11-13T21:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T21:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/?p=3333"},"modified":"2020-02-11T18:38:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T18:38:53","slug":"story-heaven-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/13\/3333\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cHeaven\non Earth\u201d is a story for idealists, perfectionists and those seeking happiness.\nThe search for perfection is doomed to failure, but does not need to be in\nvain…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man and a woman were once eating breakfast together.\n\u201cMy dear,\u201d said the man, \u201cI have something important to say to you. Today I\u2019m\ngoing to set out on a journey. I\u2019m going to search for heaven on earth.\u201d The\nwoman choked on her coffee. \u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous \u2013 you can\u2019t mean that. Have\nyou lost your mind?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast night I had a dream,\u201d said the man. \u201cI was\nsomewhere that looked like our village, but it was all quite different.\u201d \u201cHow\nwas it different?\u201d asked the woman. \u201cIt was a wonderful place. I found it after\nwalking for a long way. When I approached, I noticed that there was no sign\nwith the name of the village, but a radiantly beautiful angel was standing at\nthe first house. I asked him, \u2018What is this village called?\u2019 He answered, \u2018I\u2019ll\nshow you round if you like. This is heaven on earth.\u2019 I was shocked. I\u2019d\nimagined heaven on earth to be larger, and quite different \u2013 a palace in the\nclouds, or a city with towers and golden cupolas. But this village looked\nalmost exactly like our own, and I was almost a little disappointed by heaven\non earth. The angel looked at me as though he was waiting for an answer, and I\nstarted to find him a bit creepy. \u2018Show me around?\u2019 I asked. \u2018I think I can\nfind my own way around.\u2019 \u2018I think it\u2019s better if I show you,\u2019 said the angel\nmischievously, and so off we went. We came across people who were talking to\neach other and laughing. \u2018Like in our village,\u2019 I thought, but it seemed to me\nthat something here was different. And as we walked through the village, I felt\nmyself becoming ever more favourably inclined towards the angel and the people\nwho lived there. I asked the angel, \u2018What does heaven on earth have which my\nvillage does not?\u2019 He answered, \u2018Heaven on earth can never be the place you are\nlooking towards \u2013 it can only be the place you are looking from. Didn\u2019t you\nknow?\u2019 I was silent, and for an instant I thought I saw a smile on his face. \u2018Go\nand search for heaven on earth,\u2019 said the angel. He remained for a second\nlonger, and then he disappeared, together with the people and the village. I\nwas awake and lying in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the man finished recounting his dream, the woman\ntook a sip of her coffee and was silent. \u201cMy dear,\u201d said the man again, \u201cI was\ngiven instructions by an angel. I have to set off and search for heaven on\nearth.\u201d Nothing the wife did or said could change his mind, and on that very\nsame day he said farewell to his wife, his family and his neighbours. Then he\nset off to search for the heaven he had seen in his dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He travelled through many countries. He went to\nAfrica, but heaven did not look like Africa. He went to Siberia, but heaven did\nnot look like Siberia. He went to China, but heaven did not look like China.\nAnd he went to America, but heaven did not look like America either, and he did\nnot find heaven on earth. He was often welcomed warmly, and occasionally people\nasked him to stay \u2013 and sometimes he even thought that the angel was close by\nagain, but it was never quite the same as it had been in the dream. He never\nfound the heaven he was searching for, and so after a long time he returned\nhome. \u201cCan you forgive me for staying away for so long?\u201d he asked his wife. \u201cI\ndidn\u2019t find heaven on earth, but I\u2019ve missed you so much.\u201d She took him in her\narms. \u201cAnd I missed all of you as well!\u201d he called over to the other members of\nhis family and the neighbours who were approaching from all directions. \u201cI\u2019ve\nlearned how much I can miss you.\u201d \u201cSo you didn\u2019t find heaven on earth anywhere,\u201d\nrepeated his wife. \u201cWhat did heaven look in your dream? Which village did it\nlook like?\u201d \u201cOh God,\u201d said the man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHeaven on Earth\u201d is a story for idealists, perfectionists and those seeking happiness. The search for perfection is doomed to failure, but does not need to be in vain… A man and a woman were once eating breakfast together. \u201cMy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3333"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3623,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions\/3623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}