Sing, sing at the top of your voice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love without fear in your heart<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel, feel like you still have a choice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we all light up we can scare away the dark<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                        Scare away the dark\/Passenger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  Scare away the dark
  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Winter is coming to an end, and spring is knocking on the front door. I have a strong urge to listen to songs that express that feeling of spring coming. I like to sing at the top of my voice, for life seems so much more beautiful when the sun is shining and you realise that it\u2019s a blessing when you\u2019re happy and healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Why am I sharing this\nwith you? I realise that being happy and healthy is not something we can take\nfor granted, for at this moment, not everybody has a chance to see the sun.\nThey live in the dark. They don\u2019t want to but they have no choice. Something\nawful happend to a family member of one of our Dutch Peakers Walkers. And\nchoosing to live in the light is not really an option for them at this moment. But\nmaybe if we all light up we can scare away the dark for them just a little bit.\nHaving said that I\u2019m going to take you on our third walk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Someren<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today we are in the region of Brabant. When we did my challenge last year, every Dutch Peaker who joined me had to drive a long way to walk with me, some of them even drove for two hours. This year we are walking all over the Netherlands, and it is my turn to drive. For this walk in the region of Brabant, I had to drive an hour and forty-five minutes to reach my destination, a little village called Someren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Someren is a place in\nthe middle between Eindhoven and Venlo. But be aware Eindhoven is situated in\nthe region Brabant and Venlo in the region Limburg. Although both regions speak\nwith a soft \u201cg,\u201d  there\u2019s a large difference between the two regions. What\nthey do have in common is that they are both celebrating Carnaval. Both do it\nin their own way, with a lot of tradition and habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Carnaval<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As we are walking, Carnaval is only a week away. Today I walk and talk with Petrie. Petrie lives in Venlo and tells me a little bit how they celebrate Carnaval at her place. Four weeks before Carnaval starts in Venlo, there is what they call Boeremoosball. I actually don\u2019t know how to translate this for you but I think Barn Dance is the closest I can think of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      During this Barn Dance the\nengagement of a wedding couple is celebrated, and the couple who got married\nlast year show their fresh born baby (it\u2019s all a large outdoor play) to\ndemonstrate that their marriage has been fertile. The wedding couple for this\nyear will be wed on Carnaval\u2019s Tuesday, better known as Fat Tuesday. And you\nknow what? Our Petrie is a real Carnaval partier, for she only slept three\nhours last night. She had a masked ball, and now she\u2019s walking with us. That\u2019s\nthe real Peaker Spirit or should I say, she is just a little bit crazy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        The Lieropse Moor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It\u2019s a beautiful day to walk, the sun is shining, and some of us are even walking in MPC2019 t-shirts, fresh delivered in the last couple of weeks. Walking in your t-shirt at the end of February is really an exception. Our first break was at a cosy little restaurant where Ellen, our host for today, treated us coffee or tea with cake. Ellen celebrated her birthday the day before. She turned 60 and is going to walk the West Highland Way with her son this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

         But we did not drive\nall the way to Someren just to enjoy a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        After leaving the restaurant\nwe walked through a forest to get to the moor. The first thing that came to my\nmind was this moor is totally different than the one I saw a couple of weeks\nago in Drenthe, or perhaps is it just because of the beautiful weather today?\nMe feeling so much better then a couple of weeks ago? When we walked just \nlittle bit further we stumbled upon a place where you could birdwatch. It was a\nrather large cabin where we had a wonderful view over the Lieropse Moor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          People in hiding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Again I\u2019m surprised by today\u2019s walk. In the middle of the woods, not to been seen if you don\u2019t know where to look, are the remains of a  hidden village. It\u2019s called Kamp Dennenlust, a camp for people in hiding during the WWII. These people in hiding lived here from the 28th of December 1943 until the liberation on the 21st of September 1944. They stayed there because they initially tried to evade what was called \u201cArbeidseinsatz\u201d. People, mostly men between the age of 18 and 35, were forced to work in Germany during the WWII. Stumbling up to such a place always makes me remind me how lucky we are to live in a free world. It silences me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            With a smile on my face<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I told you that the weather was extremely good this day, so we could eat our lunch out in the field and enjoy the first warmth of sunshine. My mother was a big admirer of the sun, not that she did a lot of sunbathing, she didn\u2019t have to, because she got her tan only by being outdoors and sitting just for five minutes in the sun. When winter was done and February started with a little sunshine, she always got a chair, put on her coat and sat in the corner of the garden, letting the first bit of sun on her face. It\u2019s that moment in February that reminds me of her, and it puts a smile on my face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Being aware of the fact that\nthese few lines of a song don\u2019t mean the same to everybody and nuances are\nbeing made, I drive home that evening singing at the top of my voice because I\nwant to love without fear in my heart and with a feeling that I have a choice.\nAnd if it might just help one tiny little bit, I light up and scare away the\ndark for those who need it.<\/p>\n

            <\/p>

            <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Sing, sing at the top of your voice Love without fear in your heart Feel, feel like you still have a choice If we all light up we can scare away the dark                                                                         Scare away the dark\/Passenger Scare away the dark Winter is coming to an end, and spring is knocking on the front door. I have a strong urge to listen to songs that express that feeling of spring coming. I like to sing at the top…<\/p>\n

            Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n