least at second glance – this seemed somehow pointless. More and more came, more and more... They all buzzed and hummed together, each one trying to drown out the others with their humming and buzzing. I opened my eyes and realised that they were all bees that had rushed over – what a terrible mess! What chaos! I didn't want to hear any more of the buzzing and humming and desperately tried to stick my fingers in my ears. It didn't work! Why didn't it work? Suddenly I realised that I didn't have any fingers!! The realisation washed over me like an ice-cold shiver. Full of horror, I suddenly knew: I was the queen bee. Julia Gerlach, DPG/German Psychoanalytic Society Everyone rushed over quickly. But what could I do? I was still holding the beautiful bouquet in my hand and looked at it again, turned around, and threw it behind me. Loud cheers erupted as I slowly turned around to see who had caught the bouquet. And then I understood the bursts of laughter, which I had initially misinterpreted as an expression of joy. One of my friends should have caught the bouquet, which I had carefully selected to include forget-me-nots, white sweet peas, and vanilla-yellow wild roses, interspersed with a few fragrant herbs, mint, thyme, and rosemary. And now this! The neighbor's cheeky dachshund had squeezed through the hedge and, with a bold leap—as I later learned from Ulrike—snatched the bouquet and successfully escaped through the hedge with its prize. A few sad rose petals were the last traces of my bridal bouquet, while the triumphant barking next door testified to my defeat. While the guests were still laughing through the hedge and loudly demanding the return of the bouquet, led by my energetic future husband, Ulrike came closer to me and put her arms around me. "Don't be sad," she whispered to me, stroking my heated cheek. "Look what I have here," she said, taking a step back and bringing her hand out from behind my back to present me with some tattered but still easily identifiable forget-me-nots, which she had snatched from the battle-ready dachshund with heroic girlish courage. So you're next, I began to grin, and we burst out laughing. The guests had returned from the hedge, and suddenly Ulrike and I were the center of attention. Marianne Kohnert, DPV - Hamburg Everyone rushed over quickly. The old man had collapsed, simply fallen off his chair. Today, I had been sitting at a small table opposite him in this café, where I had sought refuge from the afternoon heat.
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