Happy Halloween

I can remember a time in Norway when Halloween was not celebrated, when the only references to Halloween were in American horror films and books. In the late 1990s, a few adventurous souls, my stepdaughter Caroline being one of them, decided that they wanted to experience Halloween as they had read about or seen in films. In 1997, when she was a teenager, she threw a Halloween party for her friends at our house; I helped her with the setup. She wanted bobbing for apples, a cake in the shape of a pumpkin, and her friends to dress up in costumes. They showed up as witches, vampires, zombies, and in one case, one of the young men had made himself up as a woman, and you would have mistaken him for one. He looked great. At the end of the evening, the kitchen floor was flooded with water around the barrel containing the apples, the cake had disappeared, and my stepdaughter and her friends were hanging around and talking. My husband and I had gone out for the evening, and when we came home, the party broke up. All agreed that it had been a lot of fun. For several years afterward, there were sporadic Halloween celebrations on her part and in the country generally. There were a few children who ventured out during the early evening, dressed in their costumes and hoping to get some candy. But this was small-scale celebration compared to nowadays.

Norway is a nation of about five million people; this year the country spent about 20 million dollars on Halloween—costumes, makeup, candy, decorations, and parties. The amounts spent have been steadily increasing over the past seventeen years since Caroline had her party. Pumpkins are no longer difficult to find nor do they cost a fortune as they used to; I carve them into jack-o-lanterns and then use them in soups and breads after Halloween is over. It makes me happy that Norwegians want to celebrate Halloween since it is yet one more thing that connects me to my American roots. I so look forward to the neighborhood children knocking on our door for candy; I get to hand out candy and to take a look at their costumes. Some of them are quite creative. Mostly it’s just a lot of fun.

I’ve accepted the reality (as has my husband) that I’m just a big child when it comes to Halloween; I remember back to my childhood days and to the fun of Halloween. Today, I bought a spider candle at one of the local stores. It’s one of the coolest Halloween decorations I’ve seen or purchased in a long time, and I’ve purchased some really strange Halloween decorations through the years. I found a website that sells a similar spider candle; you can check it out here: http://www.angeliccompanions.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=96&products_id=565

Happy Halloween!

'Making your unknown known'

Georgia O’Keefe wrote: ’Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing’. This quote has been running through my mind the past couple of days, for good reason. I finally understand what she means; I’ve understood her words before, but more abstractly. Now I feel the understanding and embrace it personally. Each time I publish a new book, post new photos to this blog, or create short video clips, I am making my unknown known. But I didn’t fully realize until recently that the reason I do these things has more to do with unleashing my creative energy (true success) and less to do with aiming for financial success. Just so I am not misunderstood; if my books, photos or videos can earn some money, I’d be very pleased about that. But it’s not the main reason I create them. It matters more to me that a reader of one of my books or blog posts contacts me to tell me that he or she really liked what I wrote, or that I helped him or her see a situation in a new way. I know that’s true because that has happened in my own life. There are books, albeit very few, that have changed my life for the better. Something about the way they were written, in addition to the time in my life when I read them—a coincidence that led to change. The written word has much power; that has been commented on many times before. But the same has happened to me when I have watched a good film or happened upon a very special song. Doors get unlocked in my mind, and I get to wander through them and into new rooms--wide open spaces waiting to be filled with new experiences. The creative world is a world that I simply could not live without; it is true freedom that no one can take from you. Now that I live in it, I have no desire to return to a world that wishes to shackle me. The desire to shackle may not be intentional, but whenever the unappeasable demands of others, e.g. in the workplace, supersede my own wishes, I feel shackled. Whenever someone or something wants to waste my precious time, I feel shackled. When you finally realize how precious time is, and how short life is, you don’t want to squander it on activities or people that give you nothing in return.

Socrates wrote: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’. It was important to him that he got in touch with his ‘unknown’; that was his definition of being alive. I agree with him. If you never dig deeper into yourself, you’ll never know what you could create. You’ll never find your talents, and you’ll never make your unknown known. Perhaps that doesn’t bother most people. But I don’t know if I believe that. I wonder sometimes if most of us just never find the time, or make the time, to make it happen. Time passes by, and suddenly a lifetime does too. Suddenly I am reminded of Horace’s quote: ‘Carpe diem (seize the day)’. There’s no time like the present to get started…….

Update October 2014: One Hundred Haikus for Modern Workplaces

October is drawing to a close, and November is soon upon us. I've been busy with different projects, among them finishing up a collection of haiku poems that is now available as a Kindle edition on Amazon. This collection is entitled One Hundred Haikus for Modern Workplaces. It's a short collection that deals with workplace behaviors, bureaucracy, leadership, politics and trends, each summed up in short poems called haikus, which are three-line poems consisting of seventeen syllables--first line five syllables, second line seven syllables, and third line five syllables. It was quite enjoyable to write them, and the strict format actually helped to make each idea more concrete and focused. This collection does not cost much, just a couple of dollars, and can be downloaded to a Kindle or an iPad. I hope you will take a moment to check it out. You can find it here:
http://tinyurl.com/lkm6po4. 

Thanks!

Here is the book cover:

Another adorable animal video

As many of you know, a little hedgehog stole my heart during the summer of 2013. Hedgie, as we called her, now lives happily on farmland in the south of Norway. It was a privilege to have helped her on her way to a (hopefully long) hedgehog life. Today, I came across this adorable video on social media of a tame porcupine eating small pumpkins, and it reminded me of Hedgie. You have to listen to the sounds this little porcupine makes as it eats the pumpkins--so sweet. All I know is that if I owned a lot of land and lived somewhere out in the country, my backyard would welcome hedgehogs and porcupines alike. Here's the video.......

An autumn walk in Oslo

Autumn this year in Oslo has been mild and nice, with only a few chilly days in early October. Both the summer and autumn this year have been exceptionally warm seasons. I've been out walking a lot, exploring new areas and streets. I have been walking home from work on the nice days when I can, a distance of about two miles--an effort to fit training into my daily schedule if possible. This past Monday, I walked a different route--about a four-mile distance to home--a route that I have taken once before and which I decided I would do again so that I could take photos. Once I left my workplace, I walked down Gaustadalleen and then further on to Anne Maries vei (street); the lower part of Anne Maries vei runs parallel to a lovely brook called Sognsvannsbekken. Of course I had to stop along my way and take some photos of these streets and the brook, on a beautiful autumn day.

Gaustadalleen

Sognsvannsbekken

Sognsvannsbekken

Anne Maries vei

Sognsvannsbekken

As it was so is it now (a new poem)

Sunday morning, windows open

Smell of bacon in the chilly air

From some unknown apartment

Down the street

Indoors the aroma of coffee brewing

Waking up to breakfast in the city we call home

Now but in any number of others

Morning routines much the same

Small things like these

Smells that trigger glimpses of a life lived

Reaching out my hand, still half-asleep,

To touch the yesteryear of memory

Remember back to an autumn morning

A Sunday many years ago another city

Espresso in a tiny pot and fresh bread for breakfast

From the organic deli on the corner

Wandering those city streets in peace

From sandy shore to colorful center

A latticework of travels

In our quest to feel that city’s heartbeat

Outside the trees' autumn colors

Grace the gray backdrop of sky

Wan sun has finally risen

But has overslept like we have

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Copyright 2014

Paula M. De Angelis 

Autumn visit to Jevnaker

This past Sunday, my husband and I drove about forty-five miles north of Oslo to the village of Jevnaker, which is located in Oppland county in the Jevnaker municipality. We've been to Jevnaker several times before, often during the autumn, to see the foliage and to eat dinner (very good traditional Norwegian food) at a restaurant called Oldemors Karjol: http://www.oldemors-karjol.no/  and http://tinyurl.com/lbuk7yx. If you're in the area, stop in at this restaurant; the homemade meat cakes are highly-recommended. 

We stopped at the Jevnaker church, high on a hill with lovely views out over farmland and over Randsfjorden. The Jevnaker region is truly a pastoral setting, lovely at this time of year, with farmhouses, sheep and cattle dotting the landscape here and there. The leaves on the trees had changed color--mostly yellow and rust color this year, not much red, at least not yet. We drove on further to the Hadeland Glass Works, which is also a very pleasant place to visit; you may even find some special Christmas presents. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadeland_Glassverk

I'm including the route we took, which is quite scenic in and of itself: we drove east and then north of Oslo, via Harestua and Roa, to Jevnaker, and then back to Oslo via Klekken and Sollihøgda. The return trip took us past Tyrifjorden, which is a beautiful fjord. I'm also including some photos that I took in Jevnaker on a beautiful autumn day. Enjoy!

Norway in the news yesterday

Yesterday was an unusual news day here in Norway. Two events of major (and global) importance occurred, both involved Norwegians, and both received the news coverage they merited. Surprisingly enough, while the two news stories were quite disparate in topic, both involved science and medicine. The first story was that May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking and fascinating work on the brain’s internal GPS mechanism. They share the prize with their former supervisor, neuroscientist John O’Keefe at University College London.  If you want to read about their work, I recommend an excellent article in Nature that you will find here:  http://www.nature.com/news/neuroscience-brains-of-norway-1.16079

The second story, less happy, was that Norway now joins the list of countries that must deal with the Ebola virus; a Norwegian woman who works for Doctors without Borders in Sierra Leone was confirmed to be infected with the virus and flown back to Oslo for treatment last evening. She will be quarantined in the isolation ward at Oslo University Hospital—Ullevål location. There was a press conference on TV last night to announce this development and to inform the public that there was no cause for alarm; that Norway can handle this case as it has prepared and trained for such eventualities at different hospitals. The medical professionals also assured the public that everything is under control, which is likely true.

If ever there is doubt as to the importance of medical research, these two news stories are proof that research is necessary. With regard to the brain’s internal GPS, this work may be crucial to the eventual understanding of what happens to Alzheimer’s patients, since losing one’s sense of direction/location is an early symptom of this disease. Those individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s may eventually benefit from treatment that could evolve from this research. With regard to the Ebola virus, the humanitarian crisis in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea points out the need for increased medical research into cures for this virus and others like it. Luckily, there are researchers who want to study these areas in the hope of finding cures. Society should continue to do all it can to support their tireless efforts.

Skies that remind me that we live on a planet

Some of the early morning skies were spectacular during the month of September, and when I was up early, I was able to photograph them. Some of the shots I took remind me that we live on a planet; the cloud covers and formations give me that feeling of living in a universe. I get the same feeling when I look out upon the stars on a clear night. Fun fact for the day: the Earth moves at about 100,000 km/h (about 67,000 miles per hour) around the Sun, in case you were wondering.

Another great song by Emerson, Lake & Palmer--From the Beginning

Another great song that found its way into my mind and heart from the moment I first heard it. I loved it from the first and still do--From the Beginning from ELP's Trilogy album released in 1972.

From the Beginning (2015 - Remaster) - YouTube 

From The Beginning

There might have been things I missed

But don't be unkind

It don't mean I'm blind

Perhaps there's a thing or two

I think of lying in bed

I shouldn't have said

But there it is

You see it's all clear

You were meant to be here

From the beginning

Maybe I might have changed

And not been so cruel

Not been such a fool

Whatever was done is done

I just can't recall

It doesn't matter at all

You see it's all clear

You were meant to be here

From the beginning

A great song by Led Zeppelin--Ten Years Gone

Heard this song by Led Zeppelin yesterday on the way to work. The song is Ten Years Gone from their Physical Graffiti album, released in 1975. Seems like only yesterday that I heard it for the first time. An amazing song that brings me back to a time when it was actually ok to acknowledge feelings of regret, love, sadness, melancholy and others in songs. It's harder to do that now for some reason. In any case, I'm posting the lyrics as well. Almost forty years gone since I first heard it.........how the years fly. 

Ten Years Gone    by Led Zeppelin

Then as it was, then again it will be

An' though the course may change sometimes

Rivers always reach the sea

Blind stars of fortune, each have several rays

On the wings of maybe, down in birds of prey

Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to grow

But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go

Changes fill my time, baby, that's alright with me

In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be

Did you ever really need somebody, And really need 'em bad

Did you ever really want somebody, The best love you ever had

Do you ever remember me, baby, did it feel so good

'Cause it was just the first time, And you knew you would

Through the eyes an' I sparkle, Senses growing keen

Taste your love along the way, See your feathers preen

Kind of makes makes me feel sometimes, Didn't have to grow

We are eagles of one nest, The nest is in our soul

Vixen in my dreams, with great surprise to me

Never thought I'd see your face the way it used to be

Oh darlin', oh darlin'

I'm never gonna leave you. I never gonna leave

Holdin' on, ten years gone

Ten years gone, holdin' on, ten years gone

Meeting of minds---a new poem

Meeting of minds

Carving out a niche in time

Each evening when darkness descends

Amidst all the busywork

To meet the masters of yesteryear

Ripples in the collective unconscious

A stirring in the great cerebral hall of fame

A room of one’s own

Awaits those who seek 

Difficult to find

Amidst the many cluttered passages

In the vast house

Remember the path inward

In dreams a path remembered

Door opened in childhood

Leading me inward

Onward toward the masters

Swirling in the mist above

Flying high above grasping hands

Consolation, not alone

A world of minds exists apart

Unknown except to few

Who hold the secret close

To grateful hearts  

A world unlike any other

---------------------

Copyright 2014

Paula M. De Angelis

Bird's eye view and mine too

Some different photos from this past week--watching the magpies from my kitchen window congregate on the rooftops and chimney of the buildings across the street. And then watching the incredible cloud formations and the plane that made its way across them. 

Patterns and beauty

I took this photo of a halved red cabbage a while ago, and posted it on a photography blog that was active some years ago. I no longer post to it, but the other day, I received an email telling me that someone had commented on this older photo (see below). It was a very nice comment, telling me that it was 'great that I celebrated the red cabbage'. The commenter went on to tell me that her faith in God had been restored while chopping red cabbage, because of its sheer beauty, and that she was surprised that she had not noticed its beauty before, because here was the proof she needed that God existed. I agree. It is the lovely patterns in the cabbage that amaze me. Beauty in the humblest of things.

So much wild beauty at Rockwood

This past August, when I was driving around in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, I revisited Rockwood Hall State Park, which was simply Rockwood to us when we hung out there as teenagers. The park, which is located in the town of Sleepy Hollow, faces out onto the Hudson River; you can read more about its history here: http://www.nynjtc.org/hike/rockwood-hall-sleepy-hollow. I've written about Rockwood before in this blog, about how beautiful it was many years ago, and how if we just wanted to get away from it all for a few hours, that was the place we drove to so that we could walk and talk, especially during the summers. One of my last hikes through the park before I moved away from Tarrytown was during the early spring, when the grounds and trees were just starting to recover from a cold winter. The park hasn't changed much in all these years; in fact, if anything, it's more overgrown and wilder than it was before. One thing that was new was that there were wooden benches placed here and there for those who want to just sit and rest or read, as I saw one young man doing. But it's the wildness about it that I love--the overgrown bushes and trailing vines, the many trees, the open meadows, the lush greenery, and the gorgeous views of the Hudson River. I met one or two other visitors on my walk, but otherwise I had the park mostly to myself on this sunny August afternoon. I enjoyed being alone on a warm summer day, happy to be outdoors and to be back in a place that meant a lot to me as a teenager. I'm including some photos of Rockwood as it looked in August, as well as a photo collage of Rockwood from over thirty years ago, taken during the month of March.

Hudson River and view of the lovely Palisades

Tappan Zee Bridge in the distance