We just had the most awesome Rocknations youth conference on in Church ever! …so far! One night some of us boys that were serving went off to get some food down at Nando’s, after our duties were over. I was gonna take the train home to Leeds and had to run to catch it. Good company makes you wanna stay for just a little longer. Long enough to have to run for the train afterwards. It was great! A drizzle of rain in the air and pitch dark! Reminding me of so many nights in the mountains…
It was then I felt it! I think I wrote about this topic last year too. Just for a fraction of a second it was there! The wet and chilly air revealed something distant, something that was not quite there yet. -Something that could be felt from very far away. Autumn!
I got excited! I’m quite tuned to these things after years in the outdoors. -And I love Autumn so much! Everything sounds different, the music is different and I pick out other records from the shelf. -Just intuitively. I was born in the Autumn, my beloved little sister were born in the Autumn, I love Autumn!
Maybe I feel a special expectation this year, since I spent so much time home in Norway earlier this year.
Lately I have found myself waking up in the morning not knowing which country I am in. I see the light and am not even half awake. I turn around in bed and think: that’s my window… mmm, light… there’s my wardrobe in Norw… (old steam engine going by on the train-line down the road) wake! England.
I really want to be here! But I really want to be back home at the same time. I used to say: “Anywhere, as long as something is happening there!” Right now I need to make something happen. But still there’s a sense of future and unachieved potential in both places. It feels like there are mountains of the mind to climb in both places. And new things are happening indeed. The people I meet, the arts-exhibition Haj and I have put on, new perspectives, Church…
I found something I had written in one of my journals a year ago. I was proclaiming that I was gonna stay in the UK and giving reasons for why! It made me happy to see it again. I just need to stick with the programme. Just that the programme seems to be extending to two countries. Not that I mind. Then I can wake up and go: light, window… mmm… morning, in Norway? UK? And I could be wrong and right with different answers every so often.
Showing posts with label Autumn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autumn. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 24, 2009
Winter's Coming
I walked out on the balcony one evening. A friend of mine was sitting in the living room. I stepped outside and looked around. Then came a breeze from my left, from the river side. I turned my head and could see the fields on the outskirts of Leeds afar and I knew immediately what was happening. It was in the breeze, just in a tiny amount. "Autumn is coming!" I exclaimed, almost surprised to hear my own words. My friend in the living room started saying "No no no!" and telling me to keep my mouth shut! I didn't. I like the Autumn! I was born in the Autumn. In the Autumn, people come down from the mountains and I have them by myself.
Today, as I was walking from the cinema in Bradford I had the sensation again. Only different. I could feel the Winter! It's not very cold at the moment. Not cold at all in the days and I wondered what it was. That subtle bite of the chill after sundown marks the entrance to both seasons. But the air tonight was dead in that it had no sense of change to plants and greens in it. There was nothing apart from the background of the city. Few things can grow in the Winter and the air carries witness to this.
So is it because I'm an Autumn child? Is it the acquired skills of a trekking guide? Or maybe you think I am mad. I don't know, but I think the Autumn and Winter is so native to me that I can sense some of their traits. We will have many sunny and warm days before the seasons change still. They may not be sunny and warm by tropical standard, but by North-West European indeed! But the little tales of the change to come has made their presence noted. Change in many ways I presume since I graduate in October. Though my educational journey is not over, this journey I embarked on in Singapore in the Summer months of 2005 comes to a close. And that means that where next stop is determines how much of the chill I get to enjoy.
There is a native tribe up North in Norway that used to have an old practice I shared much respect for. They traditionally lived in tents and some still do. The practice was: if a child was born in the snowy seasons they would take the top off the tent on the third day and let it snow into the tent. The three day old newborn child would be held up naked against the opening and snow would fall on it. Not for long off course, but by doing so the loving parents believed they prepared the child to be extra resistant to chill for the rest of its life. To modern city people it may seem barbaric, but coming from someone who could run around in the snow in shorts and t-shirt it doesn't seem too bad at all. And I wonder! -had they ever found the chill resistance to be true throughout the life-span of a person? If they did maybe I should do it to my kids one day!
I used to think something like this had happened to me. I could cope with chill like a rock can, but in recent years I have found that I actually need clothes. If the change brings me back into the chill, maybe I'll regain some of my old winter-strength? If it keeps me where it is warmer I'm sure I'll gain or regain something else instead.
I have started to understand from the feedback that I have a few readers through Facebook. All these scripts are imported from my Bloger-account, so if you find your self reading this on another forum than Blogspot you are very welcome to click on "View original post" or the links to my external pages in my information-page for "the full monty!"
Today, as I was walking from the cinema in Bradford I had the sensation again. Only different. I could feel the Winter! It's not very cold at the moment. Not cold at all in the days and I wondered what it was. That subtle bite of the chill after sundown marks the entrance to both seasons. But the air tonight was dead in that it had no sense of change to plants and greens in it. There was nothing apart from the background of the city. Few things can grow in the Winter and the air carries witness to this.
So is it because I'm an Autumn child? Is it the acquired skills of a trekking guide? Or maybe you think I am mad. I don't know, but I think the Autumn and Winter is so native to me that I can sense some of their traits. We will have many sunny and warm days before the seasons change still. They may not be sunny and warm by tropical standard, but by North-West European indeed! But the little tales of the change to come has made their presence noted. Change in many ways I presume since I graduate in October. Though my educational journey is not over, this journey I embarked on in Singapore in the Summer months of 2005 comes to a close. And that means that where next stop is determines how much of the chill I get to enjoy.
There is a native tribe up North in Norway that used to have an old practice I shared much respect for. They traditionally lived in tents and some still do. The practice was: if a child was born in the snowy seasons they would take the top off the tent on the third day and let it snow into the tent. The three day old newborn child would be held up naked against the opening and snow would fall on it. Not for long off course, but by doing so the loving parents believed they prepared the child to be extra resistant to chill for the rest of its life. To modern city people it may seem barbaric, but coming from someone who could run around in the snow in shorts and t-shirt it doesn't seem too bad at all. And I wonder! -had they ever found the chill resistance to be true throughout the life-span of a person? If they did maybe I should do it to my kids one day!
I used to think something like this had happened to me. I could cope with chill like a rock can, but in recent years I have found that I actually need clothes. If the change brings me back into the chill, maybe I'll regain some of my old winter-strength? If it keeps me where it is warmer I'm sure I'll gain or regain something else instead.
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I have started to understand from the feedback that I have a few readers through Facebook. All these scripts are imported from my Bloger-account, so if you find your self reading this on another forum than Blogspot you are very welcome to click on "View original post" or the links to my external pages in my information-page for "the full monty!"
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