the midnight skies of norway smudged with dark clouds. i want to go to there.
back
to hilly lanes dappled with sunlight…
i need to bring horseblinders to school.
because my eyes keep straying to the windows.
my ears are ringing with all the noises of inner city life i forgot existed.
ambulances roaring by right outside the room. so many emergencies!
endless chatter.
runny noses.
untied shoes.
fingers in need of bandaids.
panic attacks over missing lunch boxes.
someone accidently hit someone who accidently threw someone's milk on someone else's new pants.
vacation withdrawal.
That’s what happens to me when where I am and where I want to be are at a disconnect… the happenings around me are odd and I used to feel like a bobble-head because it seemed like nothing registered in my head. After reading your post I can see now that the problem is that everything registers; every little thing that used to be in the background moves to the foreground and creates a cacophony in my head.
I can also see now that journaling after the fact can help bring the two worlds together.
I laughed about the accidental story as well…my son often told me at bedtime that he accidentally forgot to tell me that he had homework, or that he accidentally forgot to tell me that he told the teacher he would bring homemade cookies the next day for the snack… kids like that word!
Hope Wyatt Earp Moss is on the mend, although he does look quite dignified with his cone – not all cats can carry that off!
This is just amazing!!!!
Here’s wishing you many wonderful moments as you acclimate to the new climate.
I experience re-entry when I move my eyes away from pictures of your Norway journal. I get lost among the memories of my days in Bergen. Our journeys different. Yours an exploration and mine to re-connect with friends from long ago. Many lived in the suburbs so I would ride the bus, passing houses I dreamt I lived in.
I’m anticipating the next page, the one you give us a little glimpse of behind the transparency. I’ll be back on the fjords where I fell for that Norwegian fellow and ate cherries and peaches right off the trees…
Marissa
First week down. Still lots of work to do to wrangle the monkeys into a routine, (been there). But for now, the weekend. Enjoy!
Hi Maryann! I was wondering, are you a school teacher? It made me smile and giggle a bit when I read “someone accidently hit someone who accidently threw someone’s milk on someone else’s new pants.” A couple years ago I helped in the school cafeteria and there were always so many funny little lunch mishaps! There are no words for your Norway journal, beyond incredible. It is really lighting a fire under me. I have so many pics and tidbits from so many little trips (nothing like your incredible adventures, but lots of small ones that I remember every single minute of) and I am a packrat with what I keep from those trips. I have ziplocks full of treasure to include in journals! I was cleaning out my master bedroom closet the other day and came across buried treasure because I found all of those ziplocks of trip goodies, the kind of stuff most people throw away, but I would never in a million years part with, that kind of stuff! Pure treasure! I think I was meant to find them. You are inspiring the heck out of me! Feel free to come to Phoenix and work on journals with me! Woo-hoo!
I really wonder what a travel journal to your classroom would look like. Which moments would become frozen images. When I pick my son up from school, I always ask him how his day was and he always says, “AWESOME!” but then can’t remember a lick of it. One day he answered, “Well, there were some good parts and some not so good parts.” Me-mom, ‘I’d like to know about the good parts, but first, tell me what was not so good.” Long pause from the back seat (he was seven). “Hmm,” Finally, “I don’t remember. I was focussing on the good parts.”
love your journal sooo much!!!! the colors are so amazing! the weekend is calling- soon, soon you will be there, don’t worry no matter how crazy it gets at school, moss cottage awaits with calming, peaceful open arms!
returning from a special place seems to always produce a bit of a speed bump, that abrupt stillness that comes when one instinctively knows that something has changed, even if slightly, the return to ‘work’ is an endless expanse of speed bumps whose only purpose is to throw your world into chaos but what they don’t know is that you have this secret place in your heart and the window of your memory so even if just for a moment, you can take yourself back to those cobbled streets, wooden houses and the sea knowing that at the end of the day; Moss cottage awaits and while the beasts of reality nip at your heels, you have your secret weapon…the gift of your memory…and those feisty craft monkey’s can’t ever take that away from you no matter how much ‘milk’ gets tossed. Wishing you albeit brief, but wonderfully peaceful week-end. Specially delivery Hugs await you with the help of my over-sized wings.
Susie
But – you have a weekend coming very soon! A wonderful oasis of calm, art and quiet at Moss Cottage.
Erin in Morro Bay
So great that you have that beautiful journal to tell you “oh yes, I was really there”!
Oh,,,I do remember the shock of re-entry….When you wonder HOW it is you didn’t perceive it in such intensity before and really Don’t wish to now!
Yet, slowly (and too quickly) , you re-adapt and soon it will be -almost- as if you never left
Except….
you will have these beautiful images and notes in this Gorgeous journal to convince you that ….
Yes, indeed…somewhere in this world, others are living a calmer, more enhancing life.
Warm hugs to you,
~sassi