A Hell of a Lot of Karma in the Rheingau

A Hell of a Lot of Karma in the Rheingau

Some people buy a new mattress. We simply moved into the office.

“There’s bad karma in our bedroom.”

That was how I was woken up one morning.

There are certain sentences you’re simply not prepared for, even after more than thirty years together.

I blinked sleepily in Reinhold’s direction and, for a brief moment, wondered whether I was still dreaming.

I wasn’t.

At the time, work had taken us to the Rheingau for a while, where we were living on an old wine estate.

It was a beautiful place, with creaking wooden floors, thick walls, and more than its share of history.

The kind of place where you should sleep wonderfully well.

Should.

Reinhold, however, was convinced that our bedroom had bad vibes.

Or, as he put it:

“The karma in here isn’t right.”

I tried pragmatism first.

“Maybe it’s simply because we’re living on a wine estate — and you don’t drink wine?”

Surprisingly, he was not convinced by my theory.

For a moment, I considered some sort of professional karma cleansing. Incense sticks, perhaps. Sage. Something suitably mystical that preferably involved very little work.

It never came to that.

Reinhold already had another solution.

The bed had to go.

Not eventually.

Now.

And when Reinhold has a theory, it can turn into a furniture-moving operation remarkably quickly.

The bed migrated to the former office.

The desk moved out.

Wardrobes were shifted.

Chairs changed rooms.

And since we were at it, naturally everything had to be thoroughly cleaned as well.

Within no time, we had rearranged not only the karma but practically the entire upper floor.

From then on, we slept in what had once been the office.

Our new view was a brick wall where, at some point, the creative owner of the house had immortalized a little stick figure.

Did it improve the vibes?

To this day, I honestly couldn’t say.

We did sleep quite well, though.

Maybe Reinhold had been right.

Maybe the karma really had moved.

Or maybe, after the whole operation, we were simply too exhausted to notice any vibes at all.

I never asked.

After all, in a long marriage, you don’t have to solve every mystery.

After more than thirty years, Reinhold still manages to surprise me.

Sometimes with a new travel route.

Sometimes with a technical idea.

And sometimes with bad karma in the bedroom.