Volunteer's Sunday

Can you believe that I’m writing this in a church from the 13th century! I'm sitting in the "office" of this little church and receiving visitors who come to see a culture-historical exhibition. Today is a quiet day, others are filled with guests. Most of the people I meet here are surprised to meet a Finn in the middle of the Frisian countryside in a tiny village. It has been a good onset for countless interesting conversations.

I love churches, the peaceful atmosphere and beauty in them. My mind really rests in places like this. (Although, just a while ago when there were no people around, I sneaked to the church hall and secretly sang from the bottom of my heart. Great acoustics, could hear my voice echoing echoing echoing…)

Here Again

A long break from writing... The last post was sad, but now I'm feeling great. My eyes are doing excellent at the moment and that means I should be able to search for a new job. I'm very excited and enthusiastic about that - maybe this will be the chance of my life!

Also, had a fantastic holiday and relaxed completely. In the picture sweet peace in a little paradise.

This Is Not Happening...

My mind keeps telling me that this is a kind of nightmare. But no, it IS happening in reality and I have to take it and accept it, there is no other option. I´m losing my job. The post that once was a dream-come-true for me. Unfortunately everything has happened differently than planned with my employer almost two years ago. I´m amazed by the unexpected turns in life, and with both fear and hopefulness I´m waiting for the next one to come...

My Favourite Work of Art

Many years ago I followed a series of lectures about contemporary art given by a Finnish artist Elina Saloranta. She made a strong impression on me, I could have stayed and listened to her thoughts for ages. While she was telling about the work and ideas of various artists, I learned to understand contemporary art better. I have probably never been following any classes with similar enthusiasm.

Take this example of a work of art: on the wall of a gallery, there are snapshots in frames. The pictures portray people and different objects. They are not exactly artistic photos, but simple shots.

Of course there is a story behind each picture. The artist, whose name I unfortunately cannot remember (have not been able to trace it afterwards), had asked a group of people for their meaning of the most beautiful things in the world. The work is starting to live: you can see through the eyes of these people those concrete things they had chosen. The things that meant for them the most.

One of these people has stayed in my mind. A little boy, obviously French, had chosen his three most beautiful things in the world: Virgin Mary, the Eiffel tower and fireworks.

Everyone of us could make such a list of our own. But the idea of this work of art was that the little boy and others who were asked this question, were all blind. Blind since their birth.

How important is vision for experiencing beauty? I can imagine the little boy had heard the fireworks and maybe held a miniature of the Eiffel tower in his hands. When thinking of him I don't know whether I'm sad or happy. Maybe both - sad because he has never had the pleasure to actually see those amazing things, but also happy that he has found his own way of experiencing and tasting the world.

I'm sure that in general the purpose of art is to make us think, discuss, consider things from different viewpoints.

Looking forward to keep broadening my mind...

A Few Words...

...about how it is going now with my health. I'm still officially on sick leave, for about eight months now (ppffff!). Both of my eyes are still quite poor, especially the one which is still recovering from the surgery in January. For a few months, I was being treated in Amsterdam by the best specialists, but for now there are no more "tricks" they can try to improve my vision. Luckily the treatment did help a bit.

There are also positive news: I'm trying to work again in very small amounts. Mostly I do some little things from home, but every now and then I go to the office (what a joy to meet my lovely colleagues and catch up with them!). I'm still not able to do a lot, so this doesn't affect my sick leave. Just need to try and find out how much I can do. This really means a world to me - sitting frustrated at home doing nothing would make me lose my mind!

A little while ago I visited a doctor whose job is to estimate my situation and predict the chances for getting back to work. His opinion felt very negative (maybe they have to keep the worst case scenario in mind??) and I was quite disappointed after this meeting.

Everything at my workplace has to be examined. The opinions of both the employer and myself will be heard, the working conditions and my skills and restrictions will be measured. After that I will hear the judgement: is it realistic to expect to work again and to what extent from now on. To be honest I'm quite nervous about all this, it is scary.

Green Thoughts

Today was the Earth Day. For the sake of this important day, an interesting happening, Time2ACT, was organised in Leeuwarden already earlier this week. I decided to participate and it was really instructive to listen to different experts telling about their work for saving the oceans from pollution and other environmental issues. The quests were interviewed by lovely Hadassah de Boer. And, of course have to mention: I even had the honor to meet Mr Braungart, developer of the Cradle to Cradle Design.

Great ideas, worth checking. We should all ACT!
http://www.actglobal.nl/time2act/about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_cradle

Silence

It's been a while since my last post. Just being quiet feels good sometimes. Especially now during the Holy Week, which we in Finnish literally call the "Quiet Week".

I'm planning to get the feel of Easter with watching The Passion, a BBC mini series about the last days of Jesus. It'll start within a few minutes...