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IN THIS ISSUE: STAY WITH THE HORSE
WISDOM: "If you're selfish, you disconnect, and if you give too much, you disconnect."
Stanford Addison, horse trainer
SOUL TRAVEL: NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL,
Part 2
STAY WITH THE HORSE
The statement "If you are selfish, you disconnect, and if you give too much, you disconnect", leaped off the page at me. If was from an article in "Smithsonian" about Stanford Addison, a trainer of wild horses who became a paraplegic at the age of 20. While healing physically and emotionally from his accident, he discovered a spiritual dimension he had never known and it gave him the strength to return to breaking wild horses. This time, however, he used communication instead of the standard, rather brutal, physical methods he had used previously. He learned, "If you are good to yourself and the horse, that's communication". He learned to be neither submissive nor aggressive.
It is a perfect guideline for human communication as well. My sense is that the most difficult part of human communication is knowing how to balance the desire for connection with the need for one's own autonomy and eliminating the ego that often flares in the crossfire. Addison lets the horse run until he detects outward physical signs such as the position of the ears and head that tell him the horse is ready to communicate. Then, he makes a friend. Although "watching the ears" doesn't quite work for humans, we have other ways of sensing someone's readiness to connect. Until that time, it may just be a matter of giving lots of empathy and understanding.
But the dance is difficult. If you make demands, you may terminate the dance and the relationship. If you take the anger personally, you will end up getting trampled. If you give into the anger or cater to the anger, you will be finished off for sure.
When a relationship you want to maintain gets difficult, perhaps holding the vision of a man in a wheelchair working with a beautiful wild horse is a way to remind yourself to "stay with the horse". And don't forget to watch the ears!
NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL - Part 2
All this daylight sometimes becomes annoying. It awakened me about 11:30 p.m. Earlier, when I had gone to bed, it had been raining. Now, looking outside, the light was beautiful and soft. Excitedly, I dressed, grabbed my camera and was off. I am in Bergen, a former capital and trade center of Norway. My hotel room is near the famous old, restored area along the harbor called Bryggen. The light is fantastic and I am going to cover the waterfront and walk up the hill through a lovely, old residential area. At the moment, I am grateful for the nighttime light that extends my opportunities for seeing and photographing.
Bergen, one of the most picturesque towns in Norway sits on the Western coast bordered by mountains and fjords. It was the home of two musical giants, Edvard Grieg and Ole (pronounced "ulay") Bull - the later of which was unknown to me. Each of their homes was a highlight. Grieg's charming home is perched on a hill overlooking a fijord. The furnishings are as he left them and include his 101 year old grand piano. On the property is a small concert hall with incredible acoustics. It is built on a lower level and has a roof that is grassed over so it disappears into the landscape when viewed from Grieg's house above. They give concerts there every week and, thinking I could always hear the music, I elected to use my limited time to see the stave church rather than go to the concert. I arrived at Grieg's home during a concert intermission and the pianist was gracious enough to play for us for about ten minutes. Transported by the exquisite music, I deeply regretted not having chosen the concert.
Ole Bull at the age of 7 was an accomplished violinist. He was also a composer but tended not to write his music down so there is little left for posterity. He was a flamboyant, handsome man-about-town that everyone loved and he actually spent much time touring the United States. He bought an island near Bergen and built a Moroccan style summer home that seems somewhat out of context, but is charming nonetheless. Even the statue in the park of Ole Bull has a lot of flare compared to the very ordinary one of Grieg nearby. Of course, it is Grieg who became the larger figure over time.
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Next, of special note, was a Norwegian wedding feast. A lively 84 year old woman has, for 20 years, been inviting tourists into her lovely country farm house several evenings every year during the summer for a typical Norwegian wedding feast. A large fireplace was at one end of the dining room and a fire burned brightly. The meal was served by local people in traditional Norwegian dress. Later, they performed several Norwegian folk dances accompanied by music played on an eight-string fiddle that, in itself, was a work of art as the bridge and frats were inlayed with ivory and ebony. This, we were told, is the national instrument of Norway. I have forgotten what it is called. The food would put pounds on a walrus - reindeer sausage, flat bread, large pretzels with no salt, a porridge made out of sour cream, milk and butter sweetened with cinnamon sugar, (the cinnamon sugar is not traditional) and latkes (thin pancakes with butter and more cinnamon sugar). Normally, the wedding party would have gone to the old neighborhood stone church before the dinner but it was raining and cold so we stopped at the church after dinner when it was still raining and cold. A young woman with a beautiful voice sang several hymns for us. Her rich voice resonated off the high vaulted ceiling and stone walls of the small church.
Time to hop the Norwegian cruise line for a 1 1/2 day and two night fijord cruise up the coast to Trondheim. The Geiranger Fijord was gorgeous, the rest of the scenery pretty but somewhat monotonous and I am not a cruise person. There were passengers who were taking the cruise a second time and said the scenery on the fourth day was the most spectacular. The ship does go all the way to the North Cape. Maybe when I am 90.
The Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, begun in 1070, and built over the grave of St. Olav, the Viking king who replaced the Nordic pagan religion with Christianity, is one of Norway's highlights. The crown jewels are on display here but, unfortunately, I was there on some holiday and the church was closed except for a service. Fortunately, I arrived right before the church service so I was able to go inside and see the magnificent stained glass windows.
After Trondheim, I flew to Tromso and joined the tour group for my Arctic adventure. See August Museletter. I have included a photograph of the famous stained glass window in the church in Tromso. The church was designed to resemble glacial crevasses. The guidebook says "Sydney has its opera house and Tromso has Ishavskatedralen (the church)." Tromso is a charming city of about 60,000 in a lovely setting. The sun was shining. The deep blue fjord and surrounding snow capped peaks shown to perfection. They call Tromso the Paris of Norway because of all the outdoor cafes. That is a bit of a stretch but it is easily forgiven in the mist of all this beauty.
Time to begin my journey home, and much to my surprise, there is absolutely no security in the Tromso airport - a brief reminder of what it was like to fly in the "olden days".
THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH: If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." - Doug Larson
NOTICE: The Museletter may not be as regular as it has been as I have a very large project on my plate. I love writing it and want it to continue to be a pleasure so it will just come as it comes. (Some of you even noticed I missed October.)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! A special blessing to all of you for allowing me to share my thoughts and adventures with you.
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WINGS Vol. II, No. 9, November, 2003
