Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

December 6th Angels in my studio

@brittarnhild

Up in my attic studio I have a group of angels displayed all year long. Well, not actually displayed. They live there, and day and night, when I take time to listen, they sing the happy news, Joy To The World.

I talk about angels in my Advent video today. An easy topic. A difficult topic. Angels!  What are they? Why are they? Where are they? The Bible talks about them, but usually (or always?) in connection with a person, Jacob, Joseph, Mary, Jesus.......and the persons get out attention, not the angel. 

We find quite a few angels in art, in litteratur, in music. Do we believe in them, or are they a product of our fantasy?

A woman once told us that there are two light columns (angels) standing guard at the entrance of our house. Yes, she knew they were there, she could see them clearly.

I have never seen an angel. Or have I?

Do you believe in angels?

 

 

The angel of the broken, an anniversary and a giveaway

@brittarnhild

Kirkens Bymisjon i Trondheim, The City Mission in Trondheim, works with the broken. To raise up. To make whole. They raise money for their work in many creative ways. But there is no doubt, my favorite way of fundraising is the broken glass angles. Out of the damaged, out of what can look like rubish, out of what looks worthless to the world, they make the most beautiful glass angels. From the broken pieces God makes whole. With the help of our hands and hearts.

For a long time I have twisted my brain, trying to come up with a way to say thank you to my blog readers, my blog family. Then, out of the blue, blown into my mind by the holy spirit, I suddenly knew.

A City Mission Glass Angel.

Kirkens Bymisjons premises are only a block away from my office, and yesterday, walking from work to the bus, I went in there to look for an angel. A broken glass blog angel.

 

The one I bought stands on my desk now, waiting for a new owner.....waiting for one of you. As I love, simply love each and every comment I get on the blog, I have decided that if you leave a comment on this post you will be part of the broken glass blog angel drawing, which will take part in a few days (Saturday night, may be) Two comments makes two chances in the drawing, three makes three and so on ;-)

So come on, leave a comment, tell me a tale.......

 

Blue Message

@brittarnhild

I am an apprentice. An apprentice of life. Learning that I can not live alone. Learning to search for the roots. Learning to search for water.

The Water of Life.

 

 

The scillas are blooming in the Cathedral Park. Every morning I take the detour through the park, working on a blue carpet. Today somebody had been there before me, picked a handful of blue flowers and left them on a grave. They shone towards me, like a message from an angel.

 

Help me blush

@brittarnhild

The tomatoes in my greenhouse are still growing.
I sit down every day to watch them, and my mouth starts to water.....
....soon they are ripe enough to eat.

I am impatient.
When will the green transform?

How can I get the tomatoes to blush?
I try to talk with them, but I don't quite know what to say. 

Do you have any suggestion?

Morning in The Blue Garden

 

@brittarnhild

Today I had my morning prayer, reading and meditation out in a sunny Blue Garden.
When I looked up afterwards, an angel looked down at me. 

I believe in angels.

text and image britt-arnhild

 Some years ago I was hanging angels in our livingroom window, humming happily and saying silent preyers for next day´s advent lunch with the deacons where the theme would be "angels", when the phone rang. A male voice, unknown to me, though I could see on the display that the number was local.

"Hello" the vopice said. He told me his name and where he lived, and continued: "Do you live in a red house at Huseby?" I was a little confused, but told him that yes, our house is red and it is situated at Huseby. Having this confirmed the man went on: "I have passed your house often lately. I can feel a very stron, positive force in the area. At first I didn´t know where it came from, but now I am positively sure it comes from your house. Don´t be afraid, I have no harm in mind. I am a healer, and because of this poritive force and thre light surrounding your house, I wonder if you are healers too?"

I was silent for a long time. The man waited patiently. Then, finally, I could say: "We are not healers. We are christians. When we moved in here a year ago we had a prayer for the house. I have never seen the light you are talking about myself, nor have I felt this strong power. But I believe you. It is easy for me to believe you. As a christian I believe in angels. I am sure the light and the power are the angels around us."

We continued our conversation for a long time. The rest of my family was at home and could hear my part of it. When I finally put the reciever down we sat down and had a long, very interesting talk. We see the world with different eyes in my family. Not all of us believe in angels. This afternoon we all met one though. Through a phone call.

I believe in angels. I have never seen one. 

Or have I?

In rereading The Bible in its new translation, I will especially look out for angels.

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Photos:

Madeira, Nidaros Cathedral, Paris, Vemezia

December 18th. The story behind the archangel

Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

It didn't take very long yesterday till people started to email me about the story of the archangel on top of the northwestern tower of Nidaros Cathedral. First I got a message on facebook from Sjur, the churchwarden of the cathedral "This angel, with the face of Bob Dylan (Knocking on Heavens Door) was modelled by the artist as a tribute to Dylans participation against the war in Vietnam"

Then I got an email from Carol (her text is about the sculptures on the western wall of the cathedral, and then some interesting information about "my" archangel:

I couldn't resist doing a search for your angels name. I came up with a paragraph on a random blog with a link to wikipedia. The paragraph is below along with the link. Do you think it could be true?

 

Carol

===============================================================

The two lower rows of sculpture, proposed by Professor Oluf Kolsrud in 1928, are based on the engraving by Jacob Maschius. Kolsrud was an historical adviser on the church's restoration, and prepared an iconography for the sculptures. His proposal to place statues on the "royal floor" – although without evidence of historical precedent – was approved in 1935. It was assumed that the medieval sculptures were based on living models, and to a large extent, this concept is applied to the new sculptures. Thus the sculpture of Bishop Sigurd borrowed features from the poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, and Kristofer Leirdal's statue of the Archangel Michael on the top of the northwest tower was based, according to the sculptor, on the face of Bob Dylan – inspired by Dylan's opposition to the Vietnam War.^[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidaros_Cathedral_West_Front

Every Friday at 2pm we have a cup of coffee at work. Yesterday I told about my angel revelation while having coffee with my colleagues, and then most of them could tell me back that of course they knew this story, about Bob Dylan and the Vietnam War. And I was told more........Some years ago, when Dylan was in Trondheim for a concert, those responsible for the concert wanted to give Dylan a photo of the archangels face. A lot of effort was being made to make this and a beautiful, huge framed photo was handed Dylan when the concert was over.

You say you want to know what happened to the photo? Well, that's quite another story, and not mine to tell.......

Yes, Engel means Angel

 
I wrote about Nikolai Astrup's wife yesterday, Engel Astrup. the artist who caught my interest. Yes Sara, Engel means angel.

Angels are an important part of my life. If you read my blog regularly you will know that I have written about angels several times. More often though have readers pointed out angels in my photos; in a stone, in the clouds.

I was preparing for dinner in the garden the other day when the sun suddenly hid behind some thunder clouds. And look, this angels must be one of my favorites. Amazing, beautiful, elegant......and yes, with a message for me.

Links to a few angel posts:

Yvette found an angel in the last photo in this post

A reader found an angel in the 7th photo here, the one with the red and yellow tulips in front

A post about angels in my life

I started to go back through my soon to be 2000 posts to see how many angel posts I could find, but gave up. Then I got an idea. Why don't you help me to in the search? The one to find most angels in my blog will get an angel surprise in the mail.

And there will be another angel surprise for the best angel story.

So what are you waiting for? Start seeking and counting.

Angels Playing.

On my way to work yesterday morning I suddenly saw the most amazing image. Angels were playing in the puddles from the night's rain. And they created the loveliest images.

Sometimes nature is more amazing than imagination, all you have to do is open your eyes to see it. Or let an angel show you.

Photos are real, no editing. Nature is amazing.