Posts

Showing posts from 2012

Leaving 2012

Image
It's New Year's Eve 2012. I'm in jeans and a wool sweater, not in my high heels and sparkly top. My plans for a productive day and a party for one have been sidetracked. I feel lazy and low-key. And thoughtful. My neighbors are not being low-key; they've been shooting fireworks sporadically all evening. I sit here wondering if I should look out my window and see the colors and sparks. Nah. I'll wait till midnight. The neighbors will be bringing out the really fancy stuff then. *** I usually prepare a meditation of sorts for myself, but not this year. I don't desire anything. Is this lethargy or peace? It's definitely new. Maybe I just got so engaged in the end of the world December 21 2012 (in a very fun way) that I've already had my end of the year focus. 2012 has been the most low-key year I've had in years. I haven't fussed with anything. I haven't had any drama whatsoever. What new and unusual I have experienced has gon

Wordless Wednesday - Solstice bouquet

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - It's that time of year (again)

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Light-headed

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Prints. Charming.

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Good enough to photograph

Image
…then eat! Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Getting Christmassy

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Risk-taking

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Look! Behind me!

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Somebody's dinner

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Fall shopping

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Birch leaf

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Soggy Saturday

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Yellow canopy

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Rosehips & bugs

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Fenced-in fence

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Smiling at strangers

He gingerly makes his way slowly down the footpath on two crutches. He is on his way to the mall, the center that is the hub of my part of town, where we shop and socialize. He looks to be around 70, and seems spry in spite of the slow two-crutched walk. He is tall and skinny. He walks to the mall every day around 5 pm. I walk home from it, often at that time, and so I pass him. Sometimes just as I come out of the mall, sometimes as I near my apartment. We walk the same path, so we meet. I don't know him, but I've noticed that he's grown a mustache over the summer. I've noticed that we keep meeting, just the two of us. And because I think he looks nice, and he obviously lives in my neighborhood, and we keep meeting like this, I feel it is time we start saying hello as we pass. I try a careful smile, one Leonardo da Vinci could paint, well aware that women should not be smiling at male strangers. His blue eyes meet mine, but he doesn't smile back. Rather, he

Wordless Wednesday - Peekaboo!

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - What's on top

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - No speeding in the bushes!

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Two points

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Pot? We don't need no stinkin' pot!

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Have camera, will wander

Image
There were only two things planned today: My haircut and taking some pictures of a Bergen still enjoying summer. OK, a vague third plan: Getting off the bus one stop after the usual one. That last was due to the surprise I gave myself going to the Paul Simon concert last month: The bus stop closest to the concert arena was no longer in use. I had to get off around the next corner and walk back along the fortress walls. That evening I saw bluebells growing right out of those walls, and today I was going to try to get a picture. As the bus approached my chosen stop, I discovered that a cruise ship had docked and dozens of people were walking towards the town center. I walked in the back gate to the fortress grounds so I could set my own pace since I had a hair appointment. No bluebells growing out of these walls, but I did see another woman with a camera strapped to her wrist: The "meter maid" photographing possible violators. So I waved my camera at her and exchanged a g

Wordless Wednesday - Missed my own anniversary

Image
Wordless Wednesday Back when it was Astroblog.

Wordless Wednesday - Cobble

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Dad and the kids

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Travel and other thought-provoking summer events

Image
10 days in a bus can still teach one a thing or two. Like how asphalt will tent in extreme heat, blocking the whole autobahn. Or how upsetting Norwegians find dealing with older German tourists who speak fondly of their time in Norway back in the 40's (I'm sure some US GI's have made the same faux pas when visiting Europe). Or that whatever may be going on financially, the Germans and Austrians still manage to keep the sides of their roads manicured. Or that words like "cup" and "large" don't translate at all. It's "large cup" in English, "grosse Tasse" (more or less) in German and "stor kopp" in Norwegian. My German was terribly rusty, but I did manage to use it. And I discovered that German-speakers have something in common with the French: They love that you try to use their language. So, this year's summer vacation was a bit early for me, and it feels like I didn't actually have a vacation. Still, I

Wordless Wednesday - Gallus Gallus

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Nærøyfjorden

Image
Wordless Wednesday & World Heritage Site

Bats, birds and turbines

Image
Sailing out from Copenhagen, on the ferry bound for Oslo, we pass by a long line of wind turbines standing tall out in the water. As "green" as I am, I have never liked the looks of the modern three-bladed wind turbine. There is something about them that bothers me. When I watch them turn, I find that there is no evenness to their rotation; visually, it looks to me like three Barbie doll legs, one "falling" down after another. (I have rarely seen these things moving so fast you can't make out the individual blades.) Apparently, these turbines are not as environmentally friendly as we are led to believe. In the county of Rogaland in Norway, one array is noise polluting a nearby neighborhood. I have read that the maximum three blades on modern turbines is chosen because it makes a minimum of noise. Still, anything that big, rotating in the wind, will make some sound. Another array was put in a white-tailed eagle breeding area two counties north of where I l

Wordless Wednesday - Smoothie to be

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Writing sensation

Image
There is something about a blank sheet of paper and a comfortable ink pen, and putting those two together. There is also something about having spent years preferring the speed and ease of touch typing and so ruining what legibility my handwriting used to have. Girls seem to go through stages of testing our longhand more so than boys do. During puberty we try on dotting our i's with hearts or circles or inventing a new way to make the loops on our g's and y's, the same way we try on new shades of eye shadow or doing our hair. Some of the experiments become habit, while others are short-lived fads. My lettering changed to a predominantly Norwegian style since it is simpler than the US style —even though the Norwegian lower-case "t" had me baffled at first. In school, we regularly practiced stringing letters legibly together with a fountain pen—the kind that uses cartridges; I still have my stainless steel one for sentimental reasons. The bump formed on my midd

Wordless Wednesday - Pansy at sunset

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Passing on stuff I've learned: Food

These last 18 months have led me down paths I wasn't expecting to travel. I'm basically challenging my own paradigms. Here are my thoughts about food: I have come to realize that no one can live well and healthy without animals, not even vegans. According to everything I've been reading and hearing about nutrition since I went low-carb in August of 2010, we need agriculture to continue to feed ourselves, but what we don't need is industrialized or petroleum-based agriculture. That type of farming is destroying our soil (which adds to global warming) and our health (lack of omega-3 in meat, for example, and lack of nutrients in vegetables). Organic agriculture preserves soil, plant and animal health, and in turn, our health. Humans are not in competition with animals for food. The logic that vegetarians (I used to be one) buy into is that it's better to give the grain directly to people, rather than feed it to cattle because it takes 6 (or 10 or 18 or even just 2

Wordless Wednesday - Bergen bay by night

Image
Wordless Wednesday

TL;DR - and TL;DW

I think the most frustrating experience with the internet is TL;DR—too long, didn't read. I have a long list of longer articles that I know interest me and that I want to read but the energy just isn't there. Or the focus isn't. Or the time. How annoying! All this knowledge literally in my lap (or at least near it), and still so out of reach! I was reading about how productivity may be killing creativity over at Lifehacker , an article about how we distract ourselves by staying online rather than allowing ourselves to go offline and "'do' less and 'think' more". There was this long quote from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" that, at the time, was TL;DR. But I knew I wanted to. I knew it was about my hunger for something more than status updates, for information that feels deep and significant and not like another piece of trivia. Once again, I find myself wanting to write . To rekindle my existence on my blog, because, h

Wordless Wednesday - Beneath my kitchen window

Image
Wordless Wednesday

You know that fly-buzzing-against-window thing? Code is cracked.

How many times haven't you had a house fly or some other flying bug buzzing against the inside of a window? You open the window and the insect still bangs and buzzes everywhere else against the window except where it's open. I've gotten pretty good about talking wasps back out of my apartment when they've flown in. Yes, I talk to them. Or I pray. Basically, I'm trusting the unseen part of nature, the part that instinct relies on, to help me communicate with the critters around me. They sense my energy, my intention. I've experienced this time and again and today I had an experience that drove this point home for me. If you've ever wondered why a fly casually walking on the window suddenly goes nuts all over it when you approach, here's the answer. I approached such a fly this morning, and opened the window for it. It immediately buzzed and bumped all over the part of the window farthest from me. And suddenly it hit me: The fly was panicking. It assum

Wordless Wednesday - Things that stretch upwards

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Fishy

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - 100F in the sun! In Bergen, Norway!

Image
Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Time for the red, white and blue

Image
Norway's Constitution Day Wordless Wednesday

On miracles and mothers

Image
A miracle is an authentic switch from fear to love. When we speak from the ego, we will call up the ego in others. When we speak from Holy Spirit, we will call up their love. In 1967, my whole family fell apart. Mommy, Daddy, baby sister and I all ended up at separate addresses. I spent the next eight years living with my maternal grandparents—seven of those years in Norway. I saw my mother every two years during this, and my father and sister not at all. No wonder my parents’ divorce left me in such turmoil. It wasn't the end of just a marriage; it was the end of an entire family. The harm done was lessened with the love from my maternal grandparents. The problem with not growing up under the same roof as your parent(s) is that you end up not knowing them. Nor they you. For over 40 years, my mother and I struggled with having the label mother and daughter, but not the relationship. In metaphysical circles, we are told we get the parents we deserve because we planned it tha

Oppholdstillatelse / residence permit - news

Image
Damen hos politiet ba meg bruke jungeltelegrafen. Om hva? Jo, at nå skal det bli slutt på "stempel" i passet, dette innlimte arket med dårlig bilde og gyldighetsdato. I juni begynner ny ordning med et plastkort (sikkert med like dårlig bilde) og to års gyldighet. Kortet ordnes med personlig fremmøte (som nå), men sendes i posten etter 2 uker. Det vil si at du bør være ute i litt god tid før utløp av oppholdsbeviset i passet i tilfelle du skal reise utenlands. Kortet kan ikke brukes som ID-kort, men må vises sammen med passet i passkontroll. Det med personlig fremmøte kan også endres i fremtiden. Nå skal de ta fingeravtrykk, men i fremtiden kan det være mulig å ordne mye via nettet - i det minste booke tid så du slipper køsittingen. Sa den hyggelige damen hos politiet. This page in my passport tells Norway to let me back in when I've been abroad. The lady at the police station asked me to use word of mouth. About the changes in the residence permit. Currently,