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!
Friday, October 10, 2014
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
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.
Monday, October 6, 2014
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.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
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 (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
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
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
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
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
Saturday, September 27, 2014
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.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
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.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
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.
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| Hudson River and view of the lovely Palisades |
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| Tappan Zee Bridge in the distance |
Monday, September 22, 2014
Remembering my mother on her birthday
Had my mother still been alive, today would have been her
94th birthday. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2001. The cause of death was
sepsis, which is not a very uncommon cause of death among elderly people for reasons that are not well-known. My mother had been in very good health
until she neared her 78th year; I can recall only two times in her entire
adult life when she was hospitalized, once for a viral infection in her middle
ear, and the other for an operation to remove an inflamed appendix. When she
was in her late seventies, she began to have problems with her back. She was
eventually diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine, again, not an unexpected
diagnosis for many of the elderly. Having been a great walker for most of her
life, my guess is that she looked ahead and did not like what she saw—a future
with limited opportunities for walking, perhaps the use of a wheelchair and/or
walker—in short, a more restricted life than the one to which she was
accustomed. She was independent and stubborn; when she was hospitalized initially for medical tests, she was in good spirits and was sure she would be
able to return to her old life. Sadly, that was not the case. She ended up at a
care center so that she could undergo physical therapy to get her back on her
feet again. For some reason, she became quite stubborn (more so than usual) and
refused that help. And that refusal was her undoing. Had she worked at her
physical therapy, she might still be alive today. All these many years later, I
understand that she simply could not accept the idea that she would be
dependent upon anyone or anything, and the idea that she was suddenly infirm
did not appeal to her. My mother had no patience for being old, for the various
small irritations and physical limitations of old age. She was vehement about not
giving in to old age. What is surprising is that she did not understand her
role in her own recovery, even when it was explained to her; had she taken the
reins and insisted upon therapy, had she done what it took to get better, she
might still be alive. But she had no personal experience with chronic or
long-term illness, even though she had taken care of my father, who had debilitating heart disease, until his death. Taking care of him had not prepared her for suddenly being afflicted herself. Her two brief hospital stays must have convinced her to get
out of the hospital and back home as fast as possible. I understand her at the
same time that I question her actions during the last few months of her life.
But I accept what happened even though I don’t understand completely what
happened.
In the intervening years, there have been other illnesses
and deaths--family members and friends alike—and I have had a chance to witness
first-hand how these people tackled the illnesses that preceded their deaths. Illness
does some surprising things to people. Some of them simply accepted their diagnoses
and the accompanying conditions, others fought against them. Those who fought were
mostly younger or middle-aged people. I also know older people who have done
what it takes to get well, who were assertive about getting back on their feet
again; interestingly, they are still with us. I've also known older people who did what they had to do to get well, but death took them anyway. Along the way, I've learned
that you simply cannot know how you would think or feel if faced with a similar
situation. And until you step into the shoes of a person who is ill (with a terminal
diagnosis or long-term illness) you have no real idea of what they’re going
through. It’s best to be there for them, to help out, to listen, to advise when
asked for advice, to offer hope, to be positive, even if we don't always understand their situation or their response to it. Not much more is asked of us.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Hot air balloon flying over Oslo
I happened to be looking out my kitchen window late this afternoon, and I saw a hot air balloon straight ahead of me. On closer inspection with my new telephoto zoom camera lens, I saw that it was a commercial balloon advertising the company Steria, an information technology company with headquarters in France. It has operations in many different European countries, including Norway. I took a fair number of photos as it ascended and descended; at one point, as it passed by close to our apartment building, I could actually hear the noise of the hot air as it was vented. The photos I took are somewhat misleading and interesting as a result, as some of them look as though the balloon was actually in contact with an apartment building, a suspended wire of some kind, and a chimney stack. I was pleased that I was able to get some good photos as it passed by us. Here are some of them:
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Thinking about waves...........
Thinking about waves this week, must be because I posted my new poem Wave yesterday. The word stays with me. And this song comes to mind---Waves by Mr. Probz. Enjoy........
Monday, September 15, 2014
Wave (a new poem)
In the autumn of her twenty-seventh year
Life took another road
As she remembers it
The darkness of discovery, the shock
The sheer affront of upset
Cast into an arena
From which she would emerge
Years later
Stronger, wiser
But not without those intervening times
That tossed her unprepared
Into a sea of angst
The need to change, how hard
To meet the onslaught of the waves
That threatened drowning at every turn
Labored breathing
Struggling to swim, not knowing how
Alone at sea
Sometimes in dreams
The waves were huge, tsunami-like
Rolling in over sea and land
Nowhere to run
No land high enough to scramble to
Flooded, smacked flat
Watching from a distance
As the gray wild water roiled
Spitting, angry
Waiting for the wall of water
To roll over all in its path
Alone on land
-------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2014
Paula M. De Angelis
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Four songs by Deep Forest
This is a Deep Forest kind of day for me--I wanted to hear these songs again and to share them with you. They made such an unforgettable impression on me when I first heard them in the 1990s--reaching inside me to grab my heart. Enjoy........
Forest Hymn
The Sound of Africa
Sweet Lullaby
Night Bird
Forest Hymn
The Sound of Africa
Sweet Lullaby
Night Bird
Monday, September 8, 2014
September update
For those of you who may be reading my blog for the first time, I sometimes use my blog to promote the books I've written. I haven't done that in a while, so today's post will be one of those times. I'm the author of two books of poetry and two books about modern workplaces. You'll find all my books here on my Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Paula-M.-De-Angelis/e/B002BM8OLW
Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Twenty-seven years ago (a new poem)
Twenty-seven years ago
Wednesday early August
Left New York City for London
British Caledonian night flight
An airline that exists no longer
Her first trip abroad
Landed early morning Thursday
Her hotel on Charlwood Street
1850s building
Charming bed and breakfast
Recommended by student travel guide
Attic room with shower down the hallway
Almost Dickensian
Sunlit dining room on first floor
Her first English breakfast
Served by owners, Italian couple
Pork sausage, collar bacon, tomato, fried
egg, toast, and marmalade
Had waited years for that
Anglophile parents leave their mark
English afternoon tea was yet to come
Plans to sightsee London
Friday morning bus tour atop a
double-decker
Open upper deck, blue skies and puffy clouds
It mostly rains in Britain she was told
Not so when she was there
Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey
Tower of London, Tower Bridge,
Buckingham Palace
Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus
Then she commenced her walking tour
Through Hyde Park to Oxford Street
And then to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester
Square
Fed the pigeons at Trafalgar Square
Like so many other tourists
Heart-touched by that experience
Visited St. Martin in the Field Church
Near Trafalgar Square
With its bookstore in the crypt
And walked to Charing Cross Road
To see for real what she had only pictured
Since seeing 84 Charing Cross Road
With Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins
Down to the Thames River
To Cleopatra’s Needle
Found her way to Strand Street
St. Mary Le Strand Church
Met Kirsten the proprietor, lovely chat,
lovely woman
Onward to Covent Garden to see the shops
and bookstores
Then Parliament and Big Ben
Westminster Abbey--strange feeling
standing on the graves
Of monks who suffered the Black Death
Lunch on the grass in St. James Park
Tomato, cucumber and cheese sandwich on
Italian bread
Evening descended, daylight remained
Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square
Timothy Dalton’s Bond--The Living Daylights
Took a London-style black taxi back to Charlwood
Street
A tourist in Britain
Early Saturday meet-up at Grosvenor
Hotel
Bus tour 20 to Stonehenge, Salisbury and
Bath
Twenty-three pounds took her to
Salisbury Cathedral
Then on to Stonehenge in Wiltshire
Disappointed—small, too many tourists
Wanted vastness, overwhelming, otherworldly
Last stop Bath in southwest England
Hanging flower arrangements, beautiful
Ancient Roman Baths, ancient history
Thousands of years ago
Ate lunch in nearby restaurant
Lamb, potatoes, carrots and mint sauce,
rice pudding for dessert
Back in London late
Took care of hotel reception, answered
phones
For owners while they went out
Mutual trust felt safe
They looked out for her
Sunday morning train to Cambridge
From Liverpool Street Station
On her way to Cambridge University
Science conference with colleagues
Lovely ride through English countryside
Met Wynn from London, so kind
Her daughter and granddaughter in
Cambridge
They drove her to the university
Lovely people in Britain, her father was
right
He spent three wartime years in England
Conference registration at Corn Exchange
Large hall fit for meetings and concerts
Imagined farmers selling corn there
Dormitory room in Wolfson Building, monastic
Bed, desk, chair—little more than that
But more than enough for her
Meals in Trinity College dining hall
Sat at long wooden tables reminding of
Oliver Twist
And later Harry Potter
Under the watchful gaze of Henry VIII
Beef in burgundy sauce, excellent wine
Post-dinner visit to Trinity College Pub
with colleagues
No problem sleeping afterward
Five-day conference, a setting
No one could forget, ever
Home to brilliance in so many fields
Watson and Crick, Darwin, Hawking,
Newton
Among the scientific luminaries
Mind-expanding atmosphere
Morning and evening talks, afternoons
free
Pub life after hours, some great dinners
and social life
Punting on the river Cam with colleagues
Climbing over a hundred steps in St.
Mary’s Church bell tower
To see the city—breathtaking
Walking along the college backs, taking
photos
Drinking afternoon tea at an outdoor
café
Finally--scones and jam and clotted
cream
What she’d dreamed about from early on
A tall blond man from northern Europe
Sat down next to her in St. John’s pub
Talked to her about sitting in churches
to find peace
The darkness of the Cambridge streets
Kissed her when he walked her home
Still together
Twenty-seven years later
-----------------
Copyright 2014 Paula M. De Angelis
Sunday, August 31, 2014
A visit to Duke Farms
Living
overseas has its challenges, especially when it comes to visiting New York once a year. I usually make the trip back to my birth country and hometown during the summer months, and there are
usually a myriad of places to go and people to see. Since I have limited time
in New York, I have to plan how to use that time well. Every moment counts and I don’t want to spend my precious time
doing things that are meaningless or that don’t give me joy. So I am together
with the people who are dear to me, and I frequent those places that make me
happy or that have the potential of doing so. In that way, I can include places
I’ve never visited but want to visit in that category. Most of them are in New
York State, but some of them are not. This year, on a hot sunny August day, I had the privilege of
visiting Duke Farms in Hillsborough New Jersey together with my good friends
Stef and John (married thirty-five years this year) who live in Hillsborough.
We have talked about visiting Duke Farms together for a few years now; they’ve been
there many times. Oddly enough, I lived near that area of New Jersey for four
years before I moved to Oslo, but never visited Duke Farms before
now. This year we managed a visit, and it was well-worth it, as the following
photos will document. I include two links to Duke Farms here so that you can read
more about this wonderful place: http://www.dukefarms.org
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Farms
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| near entrance to Duke Farms |
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| sycamore allée--Duke Farms |
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| unsure what kind of bird this is |
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| notice the frog sitting on the rock |
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| algae-covered pond in background |
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| the foundation for a mansion that JB Duke never built |
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| dead tree in algae-covered lake |
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| the Great Falls empty into Vista Lake (not much flowing water at the time this photo was taken) |
Monday, August 25, 2014
Pride before a Fall
In the wake of your unbridled hubris
Lie the remains of those who sought to serve you
Misguided attempts to appease
The ever-growing monster that you are
When you have sucked dry the bones
Of those about you, what have you left
Where do you begin anew
What is next on your agenda of annihilation
Did you not seek the obliteration of your fellows
To enhance your own self view, pride-gorged
Did you not speak to them with a forked tongue
And wonder why they cursed you silently
How many have sat out into the universe
A curse upon you, a pox on everything you hold dear
Why do you deserve better than those around you
That you ate up and spit out like carrion
You are a monster with a pretty face
That now shows the ravages of time and defeat
You too will suffer scorn at the hands of those
Who come after you
One can only hope
That you suffer as you have made others suffer
That you feel the slings and arrows
Of repudiation and ill will, that you so richly deserve
copyright 2014
Paula M. De Angelis
--------------------------------------
A new poem, that will be part of a soon-to-be-published new collection.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Realizations
When you’re on vacation, you have a real chance to take a
good long look at your life and the world around you, to assess the strengths
and weaknesses of choices you’ve made, and the advantages and disadvantages of
living and working in a certain way. My recent vacation in New York State made
me realize that I have reached a point in my life where I prefer small to large—small towns, small companies, and small groups of people I
care about. The preference for small towns instead of big cities will surprise
some people who know me, I’m sure. The largeness of city life no longer appeals
to me the way it did when I was starting out in my career; city life energized
me then, and that is perhaps as it should be. When you’re starting out, ‘the
world is your oyster’, as the saying goes. I don’t know the origin of that
quote, but it most likely has to do with opening an oyster and finding a pearl
inside, or opening many oysters in the search for pearls. In any case, the
world of a large city is amazing and
attractive for its energy and excitement. New York City is a perfect example;
at one time in my life I worked there and loved that time in my life. But I
would not want to have that work experience again. I grew up in a small town--Tarrytown,
and every time I return to it on my annual trips, I realize how lovely it is.
Part of that has to do with its smallness; it is manageable and familiar to me,
even though it is no longer the same town in which I grew up. I don’t require
that at all. Nothing stays the same, so it would be a waste of time and energy
to try to keep things from changing. In fact, I like the changes that my hometown
has made; I like what it has become. It is a lovelier town, and I feel
comfortable there, with the people, the atmosphere and the landscapes. As one
of my friends said, it is a mixture of people from all walks of life. I like
that—a microcosm of the world. In the same way, I have come to
appreciate small companies and ventures. If I could, I would work for a small
company rather than for a huge bureaucratic organization where you are just an
employee number at best. That’s not to say that large companies don’t function
well or that they don’t treat employees well, they can and they often do, but
the work experience is impersonal and it’s tough to find people who care enough
about your career for it to really make an intellectual and emotional
difference in your life. That’s been my experience, in any case. Bigger is not better, for many reasons that I
won’t go into here.
I alternate between wanting to take new risks/start on new
adventures (residual impulses from my past that continue to exert a small pull
on me), and wanting to play it safer in order to focus on the people and
activities that matter most to me. I am past the point where I need to take risks to prove anything as
far as my career is concerned. I’ve achieved the personal career goals I aimed
for and I now have other ideas about how I want to use my time, e.g. writing,
as I’ve often talked about in this blog. I am already well-underway in that venture;
I am currently writing two books, one a new poetry collection, the other a book
about the town where I grew up. Writing feels right, even though it feels scary
at times to feel that way. Am I really writer-material? Can I do it full-time
instead of in my free time? I don’t do it full-time as a way of making a living,
at least not now; it would not pay the bills. And that’s what’s needed right
now—a job that pays the bills. I work to live, rather than live to work as I
did when I was younger. That feels right too. If I don’t have to worry about
the bills, I am free to write. That’s how I look at it. And if I focus small,
i.e., don’t worry about the big literary world out there, full of would-be
authors and budding writers, I’m fine. I can write in peace and believe in what
I’m writing, without worrying about how it will be received generally. What
drives me now is the desire to share my thoughts and feelings that make
up the stories, poems, and novels that I am creating. The desire to create is
what satisfies me now, followed by the desire to share what I’ve created. Quite
a new thing for me.
Mostly, I’m happy with my life at present. I am letting go
of older ways of thinking and doing things, and that feels right. I’m preparing
for new life phases, and am grateful for the time to think about those phases
and to prepare for them. Not everyone gets that chance, for different reasons.
I am grateful for the peace and harmony that vacation has imparted to me. I am
also grateful for all those who are dear to me, whom I care about and who care
about me. Not everyone has those kinds of people in their life, for different
reasons. I’ve realized too that letting go leads to peace and to the
understanding that living life is not about controlling it or its outcome. It’s
about living life and being present in your life.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
A summer poem by Mary Oliver
I love this poem........
The Summer Day
Who made
the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Sunday, August 3, 2014
A summer poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
Summer
Sun
Great is
the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.
Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.
Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.
Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.
Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
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