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Decisions

Expect the unexpected… so they say… I guess it means be ready for change. Be ready for things to happen and not necessarily for the good. Do we really have to? Is life so easily disrupted if you do not expect the unexpected? Even when you have that mindset of expecting the unexpected, unexpected things do happen and will happen. You never really can plan it, right?

There are moments that those unexpected things have a huge impact on what comes next in your life. You seek for something different, seek answers to questions you have and without realising you stepped into a roller coaster going high speed along a track to end where you never thought you would be. Nothing is the same. Everything is different… or so it seems…

We all make mistakes. We all do things planned or unplanned that seem right at the time, but end up being wrong. We atone for our mistakes. We say sorry if those mistakes affect people you care. No matter what you do, no matter how much you think about it, you will have to make decisions and those decisions affect people not just in a good way. Decisions can hurt people. They can hurt people you care about, you love. They can hurt people you hold dear, you like no matter how long you actually know them.

The road is never straight. Even when the design is straight, traveling on the road is never on a straight line. It swirls, it bends, it cries, it climbs, it descends… Each step forward makes you leave behind something and at the same time it gathers more experience to take with you. Sometimes it is hard to leave something behind. Sometimes it is easy. Sometimes you loose something on the way and wish you didn’t. Sometimes you gain something or pick something up. That something is sometimes good and sometimes a burden.

Everything that happens when traveling the road has a purpose. We know that if we want to know it. We accept it more easily when it is good things happening to us. We have it more difficult to accept when things happen that are hard. Everything is an experience we learn from, or better said should learn from. We have the power to make the decisions in our lives if we want to. Every decision you take is yours to take and yours to carry with you. They are part of making you who you are as a person.

I am making decisions right now. Some of them scare me. Some of them give me a feeling of relieve, that finally I made them. Some decisions make me sad. Every decision though, is my responsibility and only I am accountable for them. No matter the impact on others, I carry the responsibility with me down on the road of the next chapter of my life. The next 1 to 2 years will be hard but with the love I receive I trust that all will be good. I trust in us. Thank you for your trust.

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Last Nights Experience…

Transmit that a poem or a song
Let me hear that voice once again
Touching my heart in a moment of hope,
Penetrating my soul with sentiment, just now
Yes, I am scared, ooh yes
I tremble at the thought of walking alone

And we move on to the next…

My experience is troubled
With all the emotions running loose
Can I find some peace now
Some hope, presented in a touch
Yes, I am afraid, ooh yes
I tremble at the thought of feeling alone

And we move on to the next…

I walked out into the soaking rain
Experiences exchanged, surreal, real
How much time do I have to absorb this moment?
To process this flood of emotions
Yes, I feel humbled, ooh yes
I look into the lights and know that the future is bright

And we move on to the next… song

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Risk

Casting a stone into a lake changes the shape of the water. The ripple it creates moves away from you until it disappears and becomes one again with its source. It existed for a brief moment to vanish into the big mass. So we do it again. We cast a little stone into the water to see the effect of the ripple moving away. Somehow it gives comfort having the illusion that you control the behaviour of the water by casting a stone into it.

Thoughts are directed to the future with a feeling of uncertainty. Will we be safe no matter where we live on this planet? Will our hearts be filled with joy in the future. I guess every generation has its doubts. Doubts indicate that nothing is set in stone and that we do have some influence on our lives. Nothing is certain, everything is possible… Risks are taken every day.

Starting a project, starting a business, starting a relation,… everything caries a risk. As long as you believe in it and have passion for it… whatever the “it” is… in the end it is all worth it. Doing things you believe in are always worth doing, no matter what the results are. It shapes you as a person and lets you be the person you are. I believe in my project, I believe in myself and I believe in my life. I trust in myself and the people that care for me and that gives me comfort to take some risks…

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Listening!

Your mind wonders away into a void where only you seem to understand what is going on. You sit on a chair, look out the window while absorbing impressions. Autumn leaves are passing by. They travel distances unknown. The blue sky is covered by clouds that resemble objects and figures. Fantasy plays with you. Only lack of imagination will spoil the experience of an adventure you see being played before you.

Then it comes. It smacks you in the face. You run into a concrete wall with high speed. Hard reality knocks you back on your feet, back to earth, back to the now and what is deemed as so important. All that dreaming and wondering around in a fantasy, is not what you should waste your time on. You cannot just waste your time looking out a window and do nothing. This seriously is very unproductive behaviour…

So here we are… We are defined with what we do for a living. It sits in our culture that we define somebody with what that person is doing as an occupation, as work. One of the first questions you get asked, when talking for the first time to somebody is; “What do you do?” as in “What is your occupation?”. You answer most likely with a similar phrase as this one; ”I am a student”; “I am a lawyer”; “I am an engineer”. Your answer allows to set a picture that the questioner can relate to and the tone of exchange and conversation is as such set. Having no occupation, saying you are un-employed, or that you do nothing is received with silence or a frowning face… Euphemisms are used to mask that you are by definition inactive in the rat race by using the phrase “I am in between jobs”; “I am looking for new opportunities and challenges”; and others…

No matter how you look at it, we answer with the intend to inform about our main activity, with the knowledge (and in some cases hope) that it will give you a level of status. It is that status we deem important. Being unemployed is not something you want to communicate. Main reason, it puts you in the bottom section of the status ladder. We communicate our profession as who we are and preferably we infuse the title we use with some more fancy wording in the hope we are put higher up the status ladder. It is all about the first impression we make. The same goes for the set of clothes you are wearing. We judge every person all the time. My argument is that we discriminate people in forming an opinion about somebody when we box them in their profession and occupation to define who they are. We form an opinion of someone before we even known the person.

Next time you meet somebody new and you start a conversation, try very hard to not ask anything about that person. Try and have a conversation about some topic that fits the occasion and avoid getting trapped in forming an opinion about the person by just looking t their clothes or shoes, before you actually had a meaningful conversation. My experience is that the less you know about somebody, the more you might be inclined to listen to what that person has to say without being prejudiced. Especially in those cases, where you would have boxed people into their boxes, where the box makes you to form a more sceptical or negative opinion about them. Avoiding this, stops you from defining up front an opinion about the person and might give you a chance to enrich experiences by hearing what others have to say more objectively. Try it… It is worth doing it!

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Light

FullSizeRenderI was witness of a conversation about light between Lene Hau and Olafur Eliasson (Art of Light) on Friday, August 25 – 2017 in DR Concerthuset (Copenhagen). The conversation was organised by the Carlsberg Fund and the New Carlsberg Fund and brought science and art together in a very interesting way. Hearing two persons speak with passion about light is an experience I will never forget. Light is fascinating, no matter from what angle you look at it.

My first conscious experience with Olafur Eliassons work was an exhibition of Din Blinde Passager back in 2010 in Arken, Museum for Modern Art (Ishøj). The exhibition let you embark on a journey through fog that was illuminated. Your senses reacted in strange and peculiar ways when interacting with the light and fog while walking inside the tunnel.

You walk through the fog. You are blind yet you see. You sense, yet you get confused on what you sense. You get disoriented with coinciding excitement that flows through your body. You get confused and loose sense of direction and time. Even today, after all these years the experience still is very vivid and clear in my mind. Once out of the tunnel, it took minutes to grasp what exactly I had experienced and how the light inside the tunnel had enormous effect on your senses. One thing is for sure, it was an amazing experience.

It makes you think about light in a different way. We take light for granted in our lives. We just switch it on when we need it. We watch it on our screens everyday, on television, monitor, tablet or smartphone… We switch it off when not required and don’t think about the science that allows our actions to control light in such a way. We see the light from the sun as something so normal that we do not think about the uniqueness of our world we live in.

We think we understand light, but actually don’t.  Lene Hau’s research made a leap into understanding light better bodying something that even Einstein deemed impossible, which is stopping light from moving. For more info on understanding how the speed of light is slowed down and ultimately stopped follow the link to the Youtube Video Prof. Lene Hau: Stopping light cold.

Try and imagining what it means having the possibility of slowing down light to a speed that you can walk faster than it, and then actually stopping it from moving. Imagine having the possibility to just park the light somewhere for a while until you decide to make it go again. Maybe my brain is too small to comprehend what this actually means, but it sounds to me that the practical possibilities are endless whit this concept. This is very exciting stuff.

Hearing a conversation about the subject and where science and art come together about talking about light was a learning experience. The conversation touched on the positive but also negative applications of scientific discoveries and inventions. Stopping light from moving might trigger ideas to be used for the good of mankind, but we all know that anything can be used to do harm. There are ethical questions that require consideration when we embark to make new discoveries. How we use the scientific breakthroughs as humans within our world and what we do with it is our choice to make. The ethical subject also is of importance in the world of art. Olafur Eliassons Little Sun project is one of those ethical positive projects where an artist designs a product with a vision. Our actions have consequences! That is so with everything we do. We have to be mindful of that.

Wherever we bring light; wherever we control light or stop light; what we do with it and how we interact and use it, it all is up to us to decide if it is used for good or for bad. Being mindful about this is a step in the right direction in making a better world to live in. When art and science meet, a small positive step is being made in that direction…

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Purcell – An ode to music…

A summer evening in August. The setting is Næstved, Denmark.

Walking towards Sanct Pederskirke (St. Peders Church) the wind blows steep and the temperature does not feel warm. It feels more like an autumn evening than summer. The  beautiful church is a perfect setting for what I was about to experience.

The Næstved Early Music Festival scheduled this year a performance of work from Henry Purcell (1669-1695). It is an ode to his music performed by the chamber choir Cantoque, the Höök Barock ensemble and Camerata Øresund.

Næstved Early Music Festival is an amazing initiative that puts the little Danish town Næstved on the world map with reference to music from before 1800. It infuses new life into a cultural heritage of early music and combines that with putting focus on the historical setting of the town. The actual festival is every 2 years in August and spans over several days. 2017 is not a festival year, but that doesn’t stop them to organise some concerts throughout the year.

Welcome to all the pleasures is a a true ode to music. The setting is the festival of St. Cecilia on November 22, 1683. It seems fitting as the weather outside indicated it was November after all, although we are in the middle of summer. The church (Sanct Pederskirke) was a perfect choice to let the music hear its voice. The acoustics were excellent and the musicians played at their top. When the choir kicked in, the sound was overwhelming and you knew you were in for something special. Purcell’s music contains the French frivolity while capturing that Italian passion of the time. Ad a twist of English harmony to the mix and you have a piece of music that stands the test of time and is today still very much alive.

The Overture opened part II of the first set with excerpts of Dido. Emotions are high in this part that start in happiness but ultimately ends in utter sadness. A story of love between Dido and Aeneas. A story of music taking you on a ride of emotions.

The second set of the evening took us to The Fairy Queen that contained 2 highlights. Hush, no more brought emotions to the church with an excellent bass voice, an orchestra playing at its best and the choir hitting the right emotions to fill the church with heavenly sound. The second highlight came moments later when Cordon and Mopsa was performed by 2 singers visibly having fun with the piece. A bass and male voice singing in high octave with a comical sauce during the performance made the piece stand out and captured the audience in full blow. What a performance. It was magical!

The musicians and choir took us through a variation of emotions and did it with ease. We went from celebrations to happiness, they took us through a moment of sadness to then take us back into a happy mood. It was a great experience.

The Næstved Early Music Festival deserves to be commended to take the initiative to bring this music back alive for an audience in these beautiful settings like Sanct Pederskirke in Næstved. Next year, August 13 to 19 – 2018, is the real festival year, and it is something to look forward to. Mark your calendars for a visit to Næstved and enjoy some truly wonderful music. You will not regret it.

Coming out of the church I had a smile on my face. I experienced something special and touching.

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Silence & Noise

In silence he sits. In silence he thinks about the words that will come. He is slowly moving his fingertips over the keyboard with intense feelings in his heart. The words flow and flow… A flood of thoughts. The flood of words combined express the experience of a moment. It resembles a river of emotions that embrace a moment in life.

How things become important that seem not at the start?

How things become unimportant, though at the some point seemed significant?

How things become meaningful when they were not?

How things have no meaning anymore when eroded by time?

How life is a continuous flow of emotions and experiences.

How life is always in motion…

In silence he still sits. Thinking about the words that should come. Fingertips are not moving over the keyboard. He is staring in front of him, looking at a wall with a map and pictures. He is thinking about things that should and should not be, thinking about emotions and experiences. He is thinking about the past and present, thinking about life. Questions come to mind about the meaning of it all.

There is no flood of words, despite a river of thoughts that occupy his senses.

There is silence and there is noise.

Tomorrow he is leaving this place, forever.

Map and pictures are taken down. The end of a period. Productive in thought, slightly disappointing in deed. This is not the end. It never is an end…

Tomorrow is a new dawn, a new chapter for emotions and experiences.

Tomorrow is a new beginning of something that started so long ago.

It is cherished in the heart. Thank you!

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Unity (I)

A story in 4 parts or how soul mates find the road to unity no matter how hard or difficult that road is…

The journey of soul mates to unity is different one for each person that encounters it. No matter when and where, or what, once soul mates have met, unity is the crowning of the journey. Do understand, that unity is not an ending, it is a start, a new beginning of a lifelong deep respectful relationship.

1) The First Encounter

It does not matter how you meet. What matters is, that you meet. The first meeting will determine that at some point it was meant to be or not. This might be strange to read this, but think about this… If you have not met for the first time, then you can never move on to the next steps.

Consider the following situations. Wether you get a slightly tipsy woman thrown into your arms and you start dancing with her; or you run after a person that you think looks hot during an exercise to endure; or you stand at the train station looking down the stairs at a gorgeous smiling woman; or by chance you bump against each other, the fact that the first meeting happened in whatever way it happened is the beginning of a journey where cupids arrow will strike at some point in time, if it was meant to be…

Finding your soul mate happens by chance, or some might say it is faith. Whatever it is, It is not something you can plan. When soul mates meet they find an attraction they cannot explain. It doesn’t matter what history people carry, where they are in their lifes and where they are going at that moment; soul mates will not judge, they will have a level of understand and show immediate respect. It is such a beautiful thing that takes root between two human beings and it grows, grows and grows…

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Experiences

There is a moment, where the needle hits the first groove, a crackle travels its way into the speakers just before the first note is played and the sound of wonderful music explores the room embracing the furniture and people present to give an experience of pleasure and joy. The mind wonders and thinks about the philosophical question how to best experience music. This question presents an array of possible answers each more convincing then the other for any individual being. The topic allows for great conversation, discussion, passion and more over it allows to elevate the experience to another level.

Sometimes we reflect on the experiences we have with music…

Is it that concert you went to that sticks in your mind and where the performance was so elevating that the music evolved into something different then you ever had experienced?

Is it that first time you heard a specific song, where your mind is blown away of the sound, rhythm and the pure genius of some lyrics?

Is it the record everybody talks about, but never really hit you and you wonder what is all the fuzz about? And then, after listening to it for who knows how many times you are blown away, not just by the music but by the experience you have at that moment and it connects…

I had some of those experiences myself. One of them was during a concert with Ryan Adams (Falconer Salen – Copenhagen – 2015). The song Peaceful Valley just hit me hard. The performance was so captivating and intense that the song got elevated from just one of the songs in the catalogue to the song I turn back to that reminds me of what experiencing music can do to you. It was pure magic.

I’d like to think that listening to music is not just about listening to a song, an album or an artist… It is about taking the time to experience the emotions that come with the sound music delivers and allows you to connect to moments in your life that you cherish forever…