Who’s there?

These last weeks have been weeks of extreme tides, King Tides. It happens when the orbit of the moon, the pull of the water, the equinox of the sun, the tilt of the earth all work together at their most extreme. Thanks to Linda, who told me about this, I have been wandering and marveling in the low tides for days.

At the average tides, I can sit on the shore and watch dolphins, whales, seals and pelicans. Now, they are further out, but I get to see why they love to roam close to shore. Teeming myriads of sea anemones, sea urchins, cliffs covered in shell and schools of tiny fish. But only at the extreme stress of king tides.

Perhaps it is like that for humans too? At times of extreme stress, the tiny, but vital and real motivators come out in the light. We are on the edge of a tide now, with moving overseas, with me establishing my new firm, with my husband getting back to work, and all other obligations that needs to be handled.

We are doing fine though. I think part of it is because we have learned through 30 years together that these periods of transition is just that. Not who we are, or want to be, but who we are when we are vulnerable, exposed and really out of our element. As with the tide pools. What we see are not meant to be seen, what we see are life forms struggling for their life, gasping in the air, longing for water. Fascinating, yet to be treated with utmost care.

The lesson of the tide pool will be my New Year Resolution this year. Not only to go with the flow, but to look for who we are when  we are at our best, to forgive, to understand. But most of all, to marvel at the resilience and the amount of stress we are able to go through…..as long as the water will flow back, life returns to normal, and the tide will stay within its limits, one day.

IMG_3354 tidepool wide 7januar

December 10th – to everything it’s place

Christmas in Solvang

Christmas in Solvang

It was our first Christmas as a married couple. Our small apartment had all the Christmas touches I thought was essential, the only thing was i had not been the one responsible for keeping them beautiful before! As our first guests arrived I was truly dismayed when they just used our home like if it was, well a home! They put clothes in the hallway, books on the tables, cameras on my newly ironed tablecloths, wash bags in the bathroom! They did not want to sit quietly and not move so that my decorations stayed decorative.

Luckily it did not take me long to rearrange my ideal looking Christmas from an advertisement to a place where  friendship could thrive, without Santas getting in the way. Since then I have some untangling rules about the things I do put up for Christmas and any other festive occasion.

Do not add, deduct.
Holidays takes place, not only in our hearts, but very much in  real space and time. Holidays normally crowds these physical spaces more than the rest of the year, with people, with stuff, with food. Which should make it evident that for all of us who live in normal houses, we need to make room for the holiday to happen, not fill up the space we have with clutter.

Decorate only surfaces where no-one sits, eats,perches or lounges.
Oh yes, to have a meal in a magic forest of snow-fairies and angels is a thing to remember for every child that has experienced it, as I did when growing up. Oh no, having to take these darling creatures off the table and rearrange them every time someone spills something is not. Now I decorate the banisters, the fireplace and the windows. The place is transformed, and keeps that way.

Too much?

Too much?

Make it big and make it again. 

I always decorate the mantel. It looks impressive, it never is. The stuff I use for this decoration stays in one box, then I add water and greenery and I am done.My wreaths are big, green, undecorated and go on the same hooks and the same doors every year…and the outdoor ones are fake. Out of the box, on the hook, back into the box. I add one big thing every year, but always something that will be reused or recycled or can be used the whole year. This year I have bought a big clam shell and filled it with pine cones.

If you need it make it nice.
Instead of adding stuff, I replace. I use my green towels all year of course, at Christmas I make sure they are on top of the stack. I put red flannels on the bed and Christmas towels in the kitchen. Very sensible. Then I do something totally unnecessary, which I love. I push our ordinary mugs, cups and plates to the back of the cabinets and put my Christmas China to work. Some settings are left on a tray on the dresser, signalizing to everyone that enters: just a minute and we’ll have coffee!

Which is what it’s all about isn’t it? Making time and space for friends and family to enjoy the company of each other, to strengthen what binds us together. You are welcome!

What's all the fuss?

What’s all the fuss?

Believe me, I know better than most how frantic and exhausting it is possible to make the season of peace and goodwill. The main story on Indexyourlife in December will be my way to a Christmas free of tangles.

In December my brother and I write an advent calendar blog together in norwegian.You may visit at  JULEFRYD or Christmas Joy. This year we will be writing or sharing thoughts and joys of gifts, giving and sharing. We will post there every day, and I will share some of that blog here on indexyourlife too.

All pictures at Indexyourlife are mine, if not otherwise stated.Today they are from yesterday’s visit to Solvang.

December 9th – I don’t decorate

IMG_1392 kakebakerWhile we were having lunch the world was transformed. From rain to the most wonderful ice storm. Every single twig was frozen into a magical crystal. So beautiful!

Except we were going to a Christmas party out in the country, should we really brave those slippery roads? In the end we did, and had a true winter wonderland experience, which even got better when we finally where inside the big old farmhouse. No inch was undecorated, every spot was filled with something beautiful or funny or interesting. Every possible theme for Christmas decoration was exhausted. As it was so tastefully done, it was a marvel to behold. I did not know the people we were visiting, but  as I praised her collection of Christmas stockings, she took me on a tour of the whole house. Never before or since have I seen anything like it, the cats had their own tree, the deer in the park had their own tree.As I thanked her for the tour, I asked innocently ” And what do you do?”. She looked seriously at me with big blue eyes : “I  decorate!”

IMG_1393 julealvIndeed she did. To me it was an awakening in many ways. First of all I realized that what I aimed at when I decorated was not possible to achieve in between, before and after everything else I had to do. Even if I love to decorate, it is not what I do.I do a lot of other things, but I could never be willing to set aside the energy, time and money involved in a transformation like this.

Having realized that freed me from taking part in the “Perfect Christmas” competition that every magazine wants to enroll us in. Being free from comparison i could concentrate on how my Christmas touches would enhance the celebration we wanted, the life we want to build, the faith we want to share.

From then on decoration is not about decorating, it is all about picking symbols that makes real and tactile all that is difficult to put into words.

So, even in a house filled with greenery, candles, wreaths, angels and gifts, it is not about decorating. It is my way of letting our home remind ourselves and our visitors about what is important to us.
It is love without words, but with evergreens and lights.

Believe me, I know better than most how frantic and exhausting it is possible to make the season of peace and goodwill. The main story on Indexyourlife in December will be my way to a Christmas free of tangles.

In December my brother and I write an advent calendar blog together in norwegian.You may visit at  JULEFRYD or Christmas Joy. This year we will be writing or sharing thoughts and joys of gifts, giving and sharing. We will post there every day, and I will share some of that blog here on indexyourlife too.

All pictures at Indexyourlife are mine, if not otherwise stated. Today they are from the Christmas windows in Copenhagen this year.

December 5th – hij kommt!

Not worth handing over

Not worth handing over

Turning on the News a day in late november we were shocked. We were in the Netherlands and saw hordes of people waving and singing, jumping and dancing to greet a crowd of boys with black coloring in their faces followed by a bishop on top of a white horse. What was this? We did not figure it out for days. Then I was in hospital with our new-born and the bishop came again, handing out oranges. Curiouser and curiouser. Of course everyone was willing to tell me, when I started asking. It was Sinter Klaas, the turkish bishop, Saint Nicholas, who every year come from Spain with his entourage of moorish boys to hand out gifts for the good children. The original Santa Claus and lots of political incorrectness.

Old stocking gifts as decorations

Old stocking gifts as decorations

I asked and I studied and I pondered. To the Dutch this holiday had become the day of the big presents, family and lots of food. We saw no reason to adopt that. What we could do and what we did was to go back to the earlier tradition and adopt that. Since then Sinter Klaas has been celebrated every year in our family, and no one in Holland would recognize it as such, if they were not from a tiny farm a hundred years ago. It has been our way of introducing a Holiday Gift Concept that is not about how expensive everything is, but to find something suited for the recipient. As tradition tells, the night before the kids set their wooden shoes in front of the fire-place. The next morning we will have breakfast in our pajamas, with a roaring fire. Everyone gets “something to do, something to read and something to eat”. That is it. And as that is what the now grown kids expect from breakfasts around the fireplace, that is also what we do for stockings. Except for Christmas I add something to wear with a festive touch and either a Christmas decoration, or something funny. No fillers, no junk sweets, no junk nothing.

Findig the key to new traditions

Finding the key to new traditions

Of course I still have to buy or make it, but it is so much easier to do when you know you are buying four plaid pajama pants and four books and so on.

Have you ever tried being a foreigner? Say if you forgot everything anybody had told you about how thanksgiving or Christmas or birthdays was supposed to be celebrated, and could decide a new take on how you would do it? I love traditions, and as I also like playing with words I look at it this way.

Tradition comes from the latin word tradere which means to hand over.

As we grow we are allowed to and have to carry more and more of the bundle of things our forebears have put in that handover pile. I think our responsibility to the next generation is to know what we hand over to them. Traditions could be a great tool to remind each other of the things we do not know how to say. Traditions should enhance our values not exhaust us. Most of all traditions should be the joint effort of everyone it concerns, there is no priesthood for Christmas goddesses.

Which leaves us with the responsibility to add, to deduct to change and to enhance before we hand that Christmas bundle over.

Believe me, I know better than most how frantic and exhausting it is possible to make the season of peace and goodwill. The main story on Indexyourlife in December will be my way to a Christmas free of tangles.

In December my brother and I write an advent calendar blog together in norwegian.You may visit at  JULEFRYD or Christmas Joy. This year we will be writing or sharing thoughts and joys of gifts, giving and sharing. We will post there every day, and I will share some of that blog here on indexyourlife too.

All pictures at Indexyourlife are mine, if not otherwise stated.

December 4th- the takeaway Christmas

Tiny people, big system

Tiny people, big system

It is all about perspective, most of the time we are a fixed part of the picture though, which makes it difficult to change where we stand and what we see. Sometimes we even feel trapped in a supposed set of traditions. And then, sometimes we are lucky, and get to see something we thought we knew, but from the outside. To me the best kickstart for having new thoughts about Christmas has been to live abroad.

26 years ago, we lived in the Netherlands. I knew how Christmas was supposed to be then, and expected it to be more or less similar to what I knew from Norway. After all, we are almost neighbors, the religion is the same and the people look alike. And then they mixed it all up! They had all their gift giving at Sinter Klaas, on December 5th, and all their dressing up on New Years eve. Which left Christmas in the middle, as a time for going to church, for visiting and relaxing. The Norwegian tradition puts all the stress on Christmas Eve. That night is the time where we traditionally serve the meal everyone gets stressed out about. That is the night where everybody is dressed in their very best, where everything should be decorated, and when everyone shall have gifts. That is also the one day of the year where most people go to Church.

As the Sinter Klaas food was unknown to me, I did not bother about that. As no one bothered about Christmas being like this or like that, I did not have to bother about that either. Which was a blessing for all of us. I had given birth to our second daughter on the 3rd, and did for different reasons not come home from hospital until the week before Christmas. I would have had to slow down anyway, but I was able to slow down only when I saw everybody else was doing it. So one day we talked about what we should have for dinner when we were not going to be traditional. Why not have something we really liked, the best thing we could think of, something worthy of a celebration?

We did. At Christmas Eve I had a long nap. As dusk was falling I lighted the candles and Stig and our oldest daughter came home with all the trappings for a Rijstafel, bought at our favorite takeaway. It was a great success.

Did we continue to do that? No.But it made us able to create our own traditions, the meal we like to serve, and that we all enjoy to make. Which is almost as good as a takeaway, by the way, we have not decided for this year yet…..pizza?

The only thing that is sure, when it comes to getting entangled in expectations: you have to be your own life guard.

Glorious, but no life guard on duty

Glorious, but no life guard on duty

Believe me, I know better than most how frantic and exhausting it is possible to make the season of peace and goodwill. The main story on Indexyourlife in December will be my way to a Christmas free of tangles.

In December my brother and I write an advent calendar blog together in norwegian.You may visit at  JULEFRYD or Christmas Joy. This year we will be writing or sharing thoughts and joys of gifts, giving and sharing. We will post there every day, and I will share some of that blog here on indexyourlife too.

All pictures at Indexyourlife are mine, if not otherwise stated.

The runaway train of thoughts

IMG_5705 bridge“Hilarious, fun, once more, neat!”
That’s what the kids said as we emerged from five minutes of dodging rocks and water, being hurled up, down and sideways, into the dark and out on the cliffs on the Rocky Mountain ride. A passerby saw me, and immediately offered her arm as support, “do you need a doctor?” she said. I did get over that, sort of. It just seems like runaway trains is the best description of my thought process as I get older.

IMG_7596 bartlovIt used to be different. My train of thought was a train gliding fast over the vast prairie. It knew the small towns where it was supposed to stop and pick up cargo and deliver necessities, and it did. It was totally reliable and always on time.

IMG_7585 rusty trainNow my train of thoughts is at best like the train that runs in the underground tunnels in Gringott, you know the Harry Potter movie. My train roars high up in the air, goes all around, and arrives at totally unexpected places. As I swoosh past I can see some wagons on a side track that I absolutely should have connected too, and then it is too late. Then my train screechingly halts at an other sidetrack, picks up whats there and takes off in a second.

IMG_4694 railroadmapsI can not rely on my brain to be calm, intellectual, always remember the right facts and knowing when to present the correct answers any more. At times I miss that youthful self-confident brain that thought life could be untangled through logic, books and exams. Reliable maps, that took you somewhere.

What I do know, now, even if I hate roller coasters , is that the jumble of life is not placed along a set railroad. To see it all, to discover all those crazy, funny, creative connections that I so love, I’ll have to come along on the bumpy line. My rusty thinking machine keeps taking me to the most unexpected places, and I love it!IMG_7592 rusty bolts

A train in the night – a daily prompt on seasons

IMG_0204 winter 2It was winter. As cold, crunchy, white and freezing as only a Norwegian afternoon at the end of January can be.

We rushed into the steaming compartment the minute the doors opened, making ourself comfortable. Settling in for the seven hour train ride through the mountains north to Trondheim. Scarves, jackets, mittens and boots were off. Crosswords, coffee, books, knitting and snacks were out.

Except for one traveller. His heavy boots, the sheepskin jacket, the green muffler, all stayed on – even if he finally tore his gloves off. An hour into the ride the passenger next to him leaned over and asked:” Why don’t you take off your winter gear?” ” Oh, I couldn’t do that,” he answered, ” You see, I am changing trains in Trondheim.”

IMG_3795 vinter skogWhen we first moved to the states, I was surprised at how everyone jumped into each season, no regrets, no anticipation, just :hey! It’s memorial day! It’s summer! Let’s celebrate! Or the day after Halloween, filling their carts at Hobby Lobby with decorations for Thanksgiving. Making the most of each season, even while they always were saving for something, college, retirement, vacation.

I love it! Just now I am having a pumpkin spice latte, in the october sunshine, it is fall!

I know, winter will come. Next week will be busy. Next month I will be traveling. After that we will be ” changing trains” and go back to Norway. But just not now, in this moment I am here, to the full, in fall.IMG_0054 fall Indiana

A serving heart

Old Statue in Oppdal church, washing each others feet

Old Statue in Oppdal church, washing each others feet

A kid was crying,loudly.
The plane was fully booked, and late.
The trip had not even started,yet everybody was annoyed.

Then a kind voice is heard in the loudspeaker.

“Hello, everybody, I know we did not do our best today, for the rest of the trip we will do better.”

And then:
“Even if you rightly feel someone should serve you now, I will ask you all to see if you can find in your heart the kindness to serve this little boy first. He is crying because we did another mistake and placed him away from his mother. Who can help him? And as you know every good service you do will come back to you!”

An angel of goodwill passed through the crowded plane, everyone relaxed, and lots of people waived their hands willing to switch seats, willing to serve.

Even if I had to stay with my own kids I felt that this kind stewardess at Southwest Airlines made the trip better for all of us, by just practising the very basics of human relations, asking forgiveness, asking for help and being willing to serve.

To sleep or not to sleep

IMG_0877 (1024x768)I did not sleep like a log, as logs sometimes move.
I did not sleep like a rock, as rocks sometimes roll.
I slept like an alpine village in a january night.
Totally silent, still and peaceful, as if snow was softly falling outside my window.

That was two nights ago.

Last night I fell asleep, only to wake an hour later.

I know why, I am jet lagged. Even so I know I have to sleep to be awake for tomorrow. Of course I do not listen to reason. I toss, I turn, I just can not sleep.

Then I tell myself, you can “notsleep”! So I do!

I do some stretches on the floor, I take a hot shower, I put on body lotion.

IMG_9401 (1024x683)I crawl back into bed and luxuriate in the stillness of the night. No one needs me just now, I am free to let my thoughts play and wander, just for fun. At times like these I have some favorite walks to relive. I meander slowly between the legs of tall pine trees in the evening sun, I walk where the surf breaks along the beach or I ski over snow-clad fields in the blue winter light.

IMG_9281 (1024x683)Strangely enough, even if I may not sleep I usually do, eventually.

At times it is not physical changes or travel that keep me awake. I have had my share of nights filled with illness, pain, sorrow, waiting or worries. I know all the tricks to help people sleep.
I guess they help others, they do not help me.

I do not read, I think sleeplessness is a gift of time to have a look at what’s already in my head.

I do not go and do something else until I am tired, I do allow my body to have its rest, even if my mind is busy.

IMG_0587 (1024x768)I just accept the fact that I am not sleeping, well, most of the time.
Tonight I just have to go to bed, before I go to sleep at my desk, and even I can not find a positive take on sleeping in a keyboard.

You, the people- on standing alone

I am a ‘one of a kind’ person.

Yet,as I look around the coffee shop where I am having my morning coffee, I see no duplicates of any of the persons I see, so I guess that goes with everybody? 

Nothing fancy with that.

I am a ‘take charge and let’s get this done’ person, the big sister of the world, my siblings tease me.

Yet, as I am in Washington D.C just now,the streets are teeming with suit clad people who think that is the normal way of living. 

Nothing standoutish about that.

If I feel something is unjust or wrong I try to make it right. Yet according to Karen Armstrong’s TED project, compassion is the core of all religion.

Nothing special with that.

The only thing is, I am not American, which is OK, most of the time. 

We attended a meeting with my husbands motorcycle buddies. They start out with the pledge of allegiance.

A room full of ‘guys and gals’ in black leather gear, their hands on their hearts, looking towards the flag, being part of the one nation under God. There I am, in pink cotton, not in leather, not driving a bike, and not pledging allegiance. I can feel everybody having a half eye on me. The person not wanting to share the responsibility is always a threat. The social pressure is strong, either you are one of us, or you are against us. 

To me it is not like that. It is all about being whole. The need to stand out is not a calling to be different, it is a calling to be true to yourself, knowing where you belong. At times it takes courage, daring to take the stand no one else dares to stand for. At times you just have to recognize the truth, this is who I am, this is who I am not. Co-existing is not becoming someone else, it is to keep being who you are.

Could I have placed a hand on my heart and mumbled something? Could have, but what is the greatest threat, someone being true and trustworthy, always to be reckoned with or someone changing their spots to fit in? As it is I pledge allegiance to peace and goodwill and the brotherhood of humanity, one world with God.