manifesting and reverberating

i keep reading about this reverb10 thing around the blogosphere. and while i'm not much of a groupie (oh please, who am i kidding?), i'm really enjoying the stories i've seen here and there and everywhere. and as we know (perhaps all too well), i'm a reflective sort of a person and i'm definitely up for some manifesting of 2011. after all, writing is the new praying (a concept i feel a bit like i lost sight of as 2010 progressed).

so, since's already dec. 7, i think i'll do a quick catch up all-in-one post.

dec. 1 - one word: as we well know, one word is a bit difficult for me. i'm a wordy one. and i hate choosing or committing myself to but one thing. you see, i like LOTS of words - challenge, beauty, peace, mindfulness, sophistication, travel, create, meditate. but if i think about what one word marked 2010 it would have to be change. we changed our home, our jobs, our entire lifestyle. 2010 has been all about change - changes we chose, but changes that were at times difficult nonetheless. if you'd asked me at the beginning of 2010, i would have said i wanted it to be about creativity, but i'm afraid it wasn't that. not nearly enough. and if i think towards 2011 and what i'd like to have it be about, it would have to be daring. i want to dare in 2011.

dec. 2 - writing: "what do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?" what gets in the way of my writing is that i drain my energy on things i shouldn't drain it on. but as of today (dec. 7), the main energy drain has been jettisoned, so i expect that to change already now in 2010. and i can't WAIT to see what happens in 2011 with my writing (and everything else) now that my energy is my own again.

dec. 3 - moment: "pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year." it was a perfectly gorgeous long midsummer evening. the light stayed around 'til almost midnight. the three of us - husband, sabin and i - walked down to our lake, which was as smooth as glass in the golden evening light. the reeds and iris along the edges, whispering in the occasional very slight, warm breeze. we launched our little old boat and paddled around, out to the gorgeous lilypads where i took photos to my heart's content while we laughed and talked together. tho' it was high summer and we were on water, there were no pesky mosquitos. it was just the most perfect, happy, golden evening, together with my two favorite people on the planet.

dec. 4 - wonder: i think a big contributor to my moments of wonder during 2010 has been my 365 photo project. the act of having to look around me and find something to photograph every single day often made me stop and notice my surroundings in way that i wouldn't normally have done if i weren't doing such an intentional project. i want to somehow carry that intentionality into 2011 (tho' maybe without being quite so slavish about it - and daring to take more photos in film only).

dec. 5 - let go: it was a year of much change and i sadly let go of our old house, my blue room and my red smeg. i also let go of a most beloved professor. but i think the worst thing i let go of this year was far too much of my energy and to causes that didn't deserve that essential part of me. that's going to change in 2011.

dec. 6 - make:  what is the last thing i made?  this relates to that energy above...i can't really think of what the last thing i made was and that concerns me. i sewed quite a bit for sabin in october and i made a christmasy centerpiece for the dining table with hyacinths yesterday, but i'm not sure that counts. i let that diminished energy make me less creative and that's precisely what i want to avoid in 2011. we're decorating a new bedroom for sabin for christmas and i'm going to start by making a cuddly quilt for her new room tomorrow when i get up.

dec. 7 - community:  where did i find community in 2010? i definitely found it in the BC365 project group on flickr.  and when we moved, we found community in the real world on our new road - nice and helpful neighbors with good stories to tell. i was fortunate to find community among some really wonderful people who i worked with in manila during november. and i can't forget the wonderful weekend at blog camp berlin. so community both in cyberspace and in my actual community. can't really ask more than that.

i think this reverb10 thing is going to be quite cathartic. would you like to play along too? imagine what we can all manifest in 2011 if we just write it all down? writing is the new praying. i'm not going to forget that again.

there's no place like...

as i was packing up the bookshelves in the blue room, i took a moment to arrange these blocks against the beloved blue background. they're letterpress blocks from my dad's letterpress (why didn't i learn how to operate that when i had the chance?). i think they once assembled to spell the name of some or other horse that i had, and i've carried them around the world with me more than once. they're precious and i wouldn't want to be without them, even if they are occasionally jumbled into a box and not used.

moving brings on such mixed feelings. i'm excited and looking forward to the new house and all that we're going to do it to transform it into the house we'd like it to be. i'm going to love having our own lake and a lawn big enough to play football on (not that i want to do that, but knowing that i could is a good thing). space for a horse and chickens and maybe a truffling pig or two, oh and lambs. i'm so looking forward to all of that.

but i've loved this house too and we did so much to it to make it our own and give it our character and leave our mark on it. when we moved in, it was like stepping into a 70s time warp, even the garden looked like some evergreen-covered churchyard, full of low bushes that even looked totally seventies. we leave it transformed and we will miss it.

but as i said when i posted this picture on flickr the other day, we are not our house and we are able to make a home wherever we go. because the things that make a home are all of the things, packed with memory and meaning, that we take with us. even if it is a royal pain packing them all up.

looking back

when sabin was little:

: : she had the cutest little red cowboy boots with silver-tipped toes.

: : she called hippopotamus (we had a lot of those in our sandra boynton books) "hillaponsa"

: : all the people she drew had flowers for heads.

: : she once ate her weight in those tiny little shrimp that take forever to peel (fjordrejer) and then asked for more.

: : she stayed with her cousins in the US and kept asking for "min mor og min far" and nobody knew what she was talking about, so they took her to see a big old fat hog on the farm next door.

: :  told the neighbors that she was 100% danish, but also half swedish and half american (that may have been only a week or so ago).

: : was more snowsuit than child when bundled up for cold weather.

wistful winding down

it's my second to last time this year in a hotel room in oslo. although i'm a little tired of these generic, uninteresting hotel rooms and the limited range of channels on t.v., i am feeling a little wistful about it. it's been a great year. it's been a fun job, a privileged situation to work from home so much and to travel to places i love and best of all, i've worked with great people who always welcome me when i come up, even when i'm feeling a little uncomfortable about coming up after not being here for a few weeks. they have never, ever made me feel that way. just super people.  although there is a very good chance i will still be working up here in 2009, it will be with a different department, so i feel a bit wistful about not working together with this group. it feels like a chapter is ending.

another of the things i will miss at least for a few weeks (since i'm not starting with the new group until sometime in january (still being worked out exactly when)) is the posh mall food at the food garage in sandvika storcenter. especially their posh pizzas and refreshing fruit drinks in unusual flavors (had rhubarb/vanilla today):

at the same time as feeling a bit wistful and even slightly nostalgic (which could at any moment slip over into sentimentality and i hate sentimentality), i'm pretty excited about the opportunity next year. i had a long conversation about it today and will again at the end of next week. and it's exciting and pretty much the ideal job for me. it involves a publication. and the web. and travel. and a fabulous camera (nikon D300 anyone?). and lots of pretty ships. and so my mind already well into next year and the first issue. i've got themes in mind for the whole year. and it feels pretty exciting and a little decadent in the face of global economic crisis and downsizing, to feel so engaged in a new job before i've even begun. and another chapter begins. or at least looks like it's going to in the new year.

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but on a lighter note, in the vein of WTF wednesday: what on earth was rod blagojevich thinking? who does the man think he is, tony soprano?