Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The road less traveled

@brittarnhild

When you have lived 60+ years, as I have, your life is filled up with routines. Good routines, not so good routines, conscious routines, not so conscious routines....... you know what I mean.

Routines are good, but they can also prevent you from discovering more of the world. The rainbow has seven colours, what if you live day in and day our only registering five of them, or four or six. Or, what if the rainbow has more colours, what if it has 10, 15, may be even 20. But you cannot see them, you are too busy focusing on the seven, or the five, the four, the six.

I love my routines. Love to know that I start my day having a shower, read on the bus downtown, stop at the grocery store on my way home andput my best foot forward knowing that my feet will take me to milk, fruit, spaghetti, orange juice, a nap after dinner, coffee and a snack with Terje while we watch the news. Going to bed at the same time every night, almost. The routine makes my days good, safe, predictable.

Then, one day, almost out of the blue, comes a day when you have to do something different, take a detour, walk the road less traveled. A day without routines.

Then my adventurous self wakes up. My eyes seek what they have not seen before, the wind feels different, wait, isn't there another smell in the air?

Good days. Bad days. Routines. A road less traveled.

It is still me. Always me. And I want to live my life whole, and full. I want to use the talents which where given me by The One who breathes his spirit into me the day I was born.

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In my blog world today:

maskerade - my knitting blog, and......drum roll, I am back to writing it in English AND Norwegian :-)

 

My most recent knitting podcast, knitting a fairytale:

 

 

And then we walked the paths

@brittarnhild

Today we had more time. Still long work hours, but for lunch we had a two hours break.......everybody out.

I did not know it yesterday, but the paths I photographed took us right into paradise.

The lunch break was all planned, with activities we were doing together, kind of teambuilding. A lot of laughter, a lot of challenges, kind of out of the comfort zone stuff.

Like when we were blindfolded and had to be lead by the person next to us. I could smell creation then, I could feel it, with my fingers, my hands, my feet inside the hiking boots, branches against my head, my ears listening to whatever they could hear. A woodpecker not far away.

Two eyes to see. What a wonderful blessing. No, three eyes. My blue pair, and the lense of my Nikon.

 

The bright side of life

@brittarnhild

The last few years have been a bit hard for me. I am getting older. The kids have all moved out. Health issues has prevented me from doing the work I loved. Depression has been knocking on my door and I have struggled hard to keep the door closed.

The struggle has kind of shadowed my life. Greyish watercolours have outmaneuvered the clean, shining colours which I have had in my palette most of my life.

 

The greyish watercolours road is a steep one to climb.

Then, today, out of the blue, out of a clean, shining blue, my inner voice spoke to me:

"Britt-Arnhild, why not make the coming days, the coming months, the coming years the very best time in your life!"

 

 

You know what! That´s what I plan to do!!!

 

Sometimes I wonder

@brittarnhild

 

 

some times I wonder

who am I

some time I wonder

who are you

 

often I wonder

who are we

 

the blurred one

is that me

or you

 

or some days me

some days you

 

 

vulnerable

more so when I am distinct

or when blurred

 

 

some times I wonder

 

who

 

am

 

 

I

 

 

 

 

 

and who are you

 

 

All these days.......the necklace of my life

@brittarnhild

All these days. The common days. The everydays.
They are the gems making the necklace of my life.

A necklace I wear with love.

 

When the world dressed herself in her new winter coat

@brittarnhild

I have mixed feelings about what to blog about today. I am Norwegian, I live in a country who send refugees back, out into the icy cold, back to war, back to religious persecution, back to a future with no hope. I want to shout out to the world, but most of all to the politicians in Norway who are in charge of this inhuman policy. I want to tell them, again, that I am not afraid of losing some of the social benefits I have as a Norwegian citizen. I am ready to share. Share it with my sisters and brothers of the world. I am ashamed of being a Norwegian. I want to hide. I want to.......

.......well, this is not a political blog. The voice I use here is different. I want to share beauty. I want to continue to believe in a world where beauty exist. I need the beauty of creation to maintaining hope.

So I put some warm clothes on an walk out in the winter wonderland outside a hotel somewhere not far from Oslo, where I am spending the weekend.

And I try to fill the air with prayers.

For my Syrian sister. For my Pakistani brother.
For the leaders in Norway, in the rest of the world.

For myself.
Most of all for myself.

 

Carpe Diem

@brittarnhild

I am very good at planning, looking ahead. Too often on this path I forget to see my own nose, or the beauty right in front of it.

When you are on the top

@brittarnhild

Yesterday was the most beautiful day of autumn in Trondheim. A perfect day for a hike. I was out for many hours, started with a goal to reach the top, but not at all sure if I would make it. I did though, and felt very happy, very content. I took a selfie with my cell phone, I did a snap, all smiling. And I took photos of a group of girlfriends who was there on the top at the same time as I.

Then, all the "must do"-photos done, I started to look around. The view, the beauty, the sky, the autumn colours, the fjord, the mountains. My thoughts left my nosetip and I was able to see the greatness.

Isn´t it so that we too often forget to look around. Our nose blocks the view.

My nose (read: sinuses) is part of my health issues, and as it is bothering me it  often takes too much of my energy, too much of my attention. I have to live with this health challenge, there is no other option. But I can learn to let not my nose, but the view fill my days. My mind. My heart.

 

 

I took so many great photos during my hike yesterday. Hopefully I will post some of them in Blåklokkeveien during the day.

 

The unexpected beauty

@brittarnhild

The cold, wet spring we have means that the June garden is brimming with spring beauty. Every day now new tulips and other bulms start blooming, and as the cold weather seems to continue, so will these lovely colours of the garden.

I wonder if life sometimes can be like this as well.

Coldness, drought, floods.......

....pains, tears, sorrows.....

 

Can sometimes give divine beauty.

 

Walking into Whitsun and beyond

@brittarnhild

We are spending Whitsun weekend at the cabin. Cold, wet, fresh snow on the nearby mountains. My life is about to take a new turn, which includes less working, and I am spending the days out here slowing down, trying to figure out where the new road might lead, making sure the gate ahead is always open.

I am wirking you all a blessed Whitsun,
a Happy Birthday to the church.