Graffiti

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

(picture)

Today one of the nurses called me a promising specimen when it comes to bedside manner. "This one is not too bad ...." Made my day :-D

The Cute Fiat

From our after dinner walk

Somebody got this nice, little car, hopefully to restore it

Sofie's Mod Tulips

The Curse Of Being - Oh So Terribly - Practical

I'm considering becoming a "slimy" diplomat, the kind who's actually too professional, who takes a pill to stop caring. I'm terribly practical. If people vent, I try to help find a solution. That's not a wise thing if one wants to lead a nice, quiet life.

Lately I've spent some time in hospital, due to required practice in med school. There you meet a lot of people who could have much better lives, if they had had all the information needed at their fingertips. I get so angry. Not at the patients, but at the thought of them not getting the information they should have had. You see the smokers, the old guys who were the seamen and workers Norway was so proud of, suffering from illness. They're victims of misinformation. When they were young, smoking was a nice, social thing.

So I get angry, and I think of one of the characteristics of an excellent teacher: she gives information freely, whatever the pupil needs in his or her situation. And I vow not to hold back information, if I have it and think it may help.

But, I'm practical, and people don't want practical, a lot just want to vent. It's obviously not good form to give out facts, even if they seem asked for. I must remember that information is not necessarily everybody's favorite thing, even if it is mine, and you don't hear anything until your inner timing is right.

Now I'm venting, so I guess I have to stop writing. Sleep well and try to avoid the bedbugs.

(ETSY shop)

Spring

Perfectly Graceful Bach

My Best Friend

Concert, Practice & Exam

Today my pupils had their spring/summer concert. It is a lot of work, weeks of preparation and practice for the pupils. Oslo Music Teachers Association has a beautiful house where you can teach and have concerts.

(picture)

This year I decided to hold the concert early due to exams.

My office

This is supposedly Edvard Grieg, cut in wood, using a chainsaw - oh dear - "he" stands on a shelf and nobody knows what to do with him.

One of the old windows

It is strange changing one's practice, all of a sudden playing the piano is getting some of its old allure back, and I even use some practice tricks on my exam cramming (taken from a book by Burton Kaplan):

• be impatient - if you don't get it right when having tried three times in a row, change practice strategy
• success no matter what - have sensible goals, get rid of all traces/feelings of failure
• try a success rate of 5 out of 10, then 6 out of 10, 7 out of 10 and so on ...

Let's see if it works on this one.

And the concert went really well today.

Graffiti

May Cherry Blossoms

The colours on the tree feels like autumn, the light is still somewhat bleak

The Cutes

This pic came in an email, the kind people send around, but she's sweet and I wish our little commander in chief, Myrull the hamster, might meet someone like her .... or maybe not? We would have 60 hamsters in no time. Have a lovely day!

Obsession With The Camera On My Phone & Stay At Home Days

Today there was a lost guy in the tunnels of the underground/metro. The whole train system was stopped. So I'm home studying, and I bet it is a lot nicer than being lost in the tube tunnel and possibly rather out of one's mind. 

Gail Sher writes about "stay at home days" in one of her books as a way of feeding one's practice. I know nothing I like better. I even got to walk a few stations as the tube was stuck. All exercise is good. It is a way to feed one's body. I miss running, will take a run on Saturday.

The camera on my phone is fun, even if the Canon 50D is wonderfully crisp and soft at the same time. Here are a few pictures from the walk:

Somehow I find graffiti interesting. Is it possible to be fined when voicing an opinion like that?

Not beautiful, but nice way to use an old tree

Just a tree, but with the sound of children playing and running in the background. Tveita is not posh. I like not posh.

Snapshot Of My Favourite Building Close To School