Germany native Heidemarie Schwermer, when in her early 50s, wanted to see what it'd be like to leave her cushy job as a psychotherapist and live money-free. Sixteen years later, she hasn't looked back.
Her fascination with finding an alternative way of life goes back to her childhood. WWII refugees, Schwermer's family fled from Prussia to Germany in the 1940s. Her father had owned a successful coffee roastery and kept a nanny and full-time gardener on his payroll. Then they lost everything.
'We were well-off but ended up as riff-raff,' she says. Once her father was able to start over with a tobacco company, cash started pouring in again. But she still found herself at odds with their lifestyle: 'We became rich again and had to defend it. I've always had to justify myself, whether we were rich or poor.'
For all intents and purposes, you could call Schwermer homeless. She has no permanent address and drifts between lodgings, spending no longer than a week at each. Most of her hosts are acquaintances she makes at the speaking engagements she travels to across the country. Others are long-time friends.
In a documentary made about her life, 'Living Without Money', she's seen foraging for leftover produce at fresh air markets and trading a shopkeeper a few hours of cleaning services in return for food. She often receives clothing from friends, donating what she doesn't have room for in the small suitcase she carts from home to home.
But she bristles at comparisons to the homeless, explaining that she sees herself in a much different light.
'I'm always thinking about how I could make things better for life in the world,' she says. 'I am something like a peace pilgrim. I go from house to house sharing my philosophy.'
Part of that philosophy requires her to put a lot of faith in the unknown. Other than the small notebook she uses to keep track of her scheduled speaking engagements and housing arrangements, most of her plans are left to fate.
'I see a lot of miracles in my daily life. For example, in the beginning I found food. I thought about things and then I found them in the street or people came to bring them to me,' she explains. 'I think these miracles happen because of our thoughts.'
When seasons change, she gives away whatever clothing she has and waits for new items to come along. Most are given by hosts and friends she meets along the way.
The road wasn't always easy. With two adult children and three grandchildren, Schwermer admits her family wasn't exactly on board when she pitched the idea. She now sees them only a few times per year, but says they eventually warmed up to her come-and-go lifestyle.
'Now they're proud of what I'm doing. It's enough for us,' she says.
Although she never had plans to go public with her life, after a German book publisher pushed her to put pen to paper, Schwermer relented. The latest of three books on her journey, 'Seeing Miracles In Life Without Money,' will be released this summer in Germany. As with its predecessors, all her royalties will go to the various charitable groups she supports.
'Now, more and more young people want to change something in their lives and often they don't know what they can change,' she says. 'I changed something in my life.'
Its scientific name is Dracula simia, the last part nodding towards the fact that this remarkable orchid bears more than a passing resemblance to a monkey’s face – although we won’t go as far as to be species specific on this one. The Dracula (genus) part of its name refers to the strange characteristic of the two long spurs of the sepals, reminiscent of the fangs of a certain Transylvanian count of film and fiction fame.
The orchid was only named in 1978 by the botanist Luer but is in a family containing over 120 species mostly found in Ecuador. Up in the cloud mountains the monkey orchid can flower at any time – it is not season specific. It scent resembles that of a ripe orange.
The examples seen here are all cultivated – though it remains very rare in ‘captivity’. For that reason don’t make a dash down to your local horticulturalist. Yet for those lucky enough to have one, if kept quite cool and in partial shade and it can thrive and flower. Like all orchids, however, it needs a lot of care and patience.
