<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Had to have high, high hopes for a\nliving<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didn\u2019t know how but I always had a\nfeeling<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was gonna be that one in a million<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always had high, high hopes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                           Panic\nat the disco<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  High Hopes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Don\u2019t we all have high hopes at some\nmoments in life? Shouldn\u2019t we have high hopes at some moments in life? We want\nthe best out of everything and especially out of life. I know I had high hopes\nwhen I first heard my mother had cancer. I thought science was already that far\nthat we can cure quite a  lot of cancers.\nAnd after being clean for five years I still had high hopes she would make it\nthrough this horrible disease. Unfortunately, the cancer came back and nothing\ncould be done to cure her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  We all know that where there is a high involved there probably will be lying in wait a disappointment  somewhere around the corner. My high hopes vanished, and I had to face reality. I lost my mother when she was 75 and I was 39 with two little kids, and a loving, supporting and caring husband. Throughout the years I had a lot of questions I wasn\u2019t able to ask her anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    On my walk today  I spoke with other Dutch Peakers who had high\nhopes for a life but also hit bottom in their lives. Both Ria and Caroline lost\ntheir husbands. One had cancer and the other one had a heart attack. Both women\nhit bottom, and somewhere on the road to recovery they met MPC and the Dutch\nPeakers. Every time I hear stories like these, I am touched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We talked about how they rise again\nand what it took them to get back to high hopes. And although it sounds strange,\nthat\u2019s why these walks are so beautiful and valuable. There\u2019s a story in\neverybody\u2026you just have to listen and walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      Umfassungsweg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Our walk for today bears a German\nname. That\u2019s no surprise, for Louise took us on a walk in the region of\nOverijssel, an area better known as Twente, amongst us Dutch People. And Twente\nis very close to the German border. But that\u2019s not why this walk is called\nUmfassungsweg. It owes its name to a landscape architect called Petzold. It\nmust have been somewhere around 1890 that he created this route that includes\nthe heart of the state we are walking in today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We started in a place called Delden,\nwith a little over 7400 inhabitants, and an ice cream shop that sells the best\nice cream ever. Unfortunatly as we passed, it was closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        2 Km North of this city lies a\nbeautiful castle named Twickel, located on the largest private estate in the\nNetherlands. The estate not only includes a castle but also a court, gardens\nand outbuildings. We walked through the estate and enjoyed the beauty and\ndiversity of the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          For Louise it brough back youthful\nmemories. Her grandmother used to live in the region, and as a child she used\nto walk here often and even went ice skating in the winter. Whether it rains or\nthe sun shines, it\u2019s always beautiful here according to Louise. And when you\nwork as a psychologist with people who are mentally disabled in combination\nwith addiction problems and phychiatric disorders, I do understand that walking\nin an area like this clears your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          New meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Today I had the honour of meeting some\nnew Peakers. Maybe new is too big a word, with social media all over, you\nwonder who\u2019s new to you.  What I meant by\n\u201cnew\u201d is that I had never met them in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Jolanda is one of those whom I did\nnot have the pleasure of meeting before. In 2010 she and her husband left for\nSouth Africa. They had high hopes, for they decided that South Africa was going\nto be the country where they would grow old and grey. They had no intention of\never returning to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            But then her husband\u2019s company went\nbankrupt.  When you don\u2019t have a job in\nSouth Africa you don\u2019t have a green card, and no green card means you have to\nleave the country. The company orginally was German and so they moved back to\nGermany, close to the Dutch borders. Still every day she misses South Africa and\nshe is trying hard to get her life back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And then there is Antje. Antje lives\non one of the Frysian Islands and had to take a boat trip of two hours and a\ndrive of over two hours to join us for a walk. Travelling almost half a day to\nwalk with other Dutch Peakers means she certainly must have high hopes. I hope\nAntje we made these high hopes come true. Later this year you will hear more of\nthis lady, for we have plans to go to walking in her region at the end of September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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              And then there is Caroline, sweet\nCaroline. I have done several walks with her so far and every time my\nadmiration for this woman grows. She is the one that lost her husband from a heart\nattack when she had two children of 20 and 16 years old. The first time we met\nwas on our walk in Scheveningen. I have to admit I didn\u2019t talk to her much that\nfirst time, but I certainly noticed her. Why did I notice her? Well this is a\nlittle confession and I hope she will laugh about it\u2026I know she will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              As I looked at her feet I saw she was\nwearing sneakers. And I get it, not everybody has decent hiking boots the first\ntime you join in for a walk, but somehow I had my doubts if she would make it\non those sneakers, but she did, and that\u2019s when my admiration for this woman\nstarted to grow. She is a tough lady, and there is hardly anything that stops\nher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Not long after that she bought hiking\nboots.  Caroline often suffers from pain\nin her knees, but she keeps on walking, no matter what. You are an absolute\ngo-getter, a fighter, Caroline!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Caroline works in the housing market\nas a coach. I hear a lot of you thinking, what\u2019s she doing? Well that\u2019s exactly\nwhat I thought so I asked her to explain it a little and know I will try to\nexplain it to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              When people have bought a new house\nshe guides them with the additional work. Everything that\u2019s not standard\napplied into the house or what differs from the original blueprints (for\nexample when you want to relocate a wall), she will be the contact for the\nbuyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n