Knock, knock... Who's there?

Well, I just wanted to stop by and tell you all that I am still alive. (In case you were wondering...). I'm like that parrot, you know, the Norweigan Blue (even though I am Swedish)...I'm not dead, I'm resting... When I am not working, that is. And when I'm not resting, or working, I am spending time with friends and family enjoying life and the beauty of Summer. I am looking forward to some time off from school and work, I will be enjoying strawberries, ice cream, road trips, blueberry pie, photo opportunities, hugs, good books, and maybe a glass of wine or two watching the sun set...

I will be missing you all, but have no doubts I'll come back to stalk you all when Fall is here. Until then I am sending tons of hugs and kisses your way...!

Love/

Johanna

Listening to old people

You know how I usually complain about being a poor student? Well, it’s not like this fact really has changed in any substantial way, but I am still very happy at the moment because I have some good news: I have a job for the summer! I will be working part time taking care of old people who still live at home but who need some extra help getting through the day. I will be helping them with breakfast, assist as they take showers, help them put on their clothes, fix breakfast, hand out medicine, take them for walks, clean their homes, deliver lunch, fix supper, take them to see the doctor and the dentist, that kind of thing. I am really looking forward to this. I have had this kind of work many summers in the past and I have loved every bit of it. Maybe I’ll even get to work extra during this coming fall too, if all goes well.

I love being around old people. If you just take your time and really listen to them, they have so many stories to tell. About life. About what’s important. About the stuff that matters, and the stuff that doesn’t. About time. Often talking to them allows me to see things in a different angle, from a new perspective. They make me raise my voice, sometimes only to soon realize I didn’t really have to. Not all old people are deaf, you know. They have on many occasions made me change the radio station. Not all old people love old people’s music, you know… I have seen their scars and tattoos and listened to the stories associated with them. I have seen wounds and bruises. I have carried tiny little old ladies, and I have wheeled heavy ones in wheel chairs, uphill as well as downhill. I have held the hands of lonely people who have told me they have lost everyone and everything, even lost their hope, and I have been trying to comfort them but not always succeeded. I have shared tears and laughter. I have grown in the past. I will grow in the future. Soon I’ll be off meeting my new co-workers and some of the old people I will be taking care of this summer. I am so excited. I can’t wait. Wish me luck!

55 - We are all flowers

We are all flowers

Growing

Peeking up from the grass

Stretching out

Reaching for the sun

Roots digging through the soil

Craving water

Needing light

We are beautiful

We come in all shapes and colors

We may bow our heads in the wind

But we rise again after the storm has passed

Again and again

Sun is shining

Summer has arrived… or at least it is here visiting for a couple of days. Summer makes me want to go outside. Almost makes me want to go outside to live. I live in an apartment with my family. Some day I would love for us to live in a house of our own with a lawn, a garden, trees, flowers and all that. The apartment where we live now is perfect for our needs right now however. It is fine really. It is big and the rent is reasonable. So I am not really complaining here. Well, maybe I am, just a little bit.

This time of the year I always get started dreaming about what it would be like to have a house of our own... It probably has to do with the climate here… In Sweden when spring and summer finally arrive, people go crazy. They go wild. They go find their bikinis (the females, mostly),bring out their barbecue equipment, lawnmowers, shovels (not the snow ones though… Ha!) and they plant flowers and tomatoes and strawberries, and then they sit their on their perfect green lawns in comfortable chairs sipping cold drinks next to their perfect houses with their perfect families and… well, I envy them. I might as well tell you that straight out, in case you hadn’t noticed… I am 35 years old. I should have come further along in my life than this by now. I should have a job by now. I should be making money by now. Instead it’s a fact that I am a poor teacher’s student living in an apartment with my family. I have 2,5 years left of school until I graduate. Sometimes I feel frustrated over this fact and also kind of sorry for my family. They deserve better. Especially this time of the year.


I will not let this post remain a pity party though. We have a lot of things to be grateful for as well. First, my in-laws own a summer house by the beautiful lake of Vänern on the island of Torsö. We have our own room there and we can spend as much time as we like with them there during the summer. Secondly, we live next to the lake of Vänern and there are lots of places to go nearby if you want to go swimming. Mariestad, the town where we live, is beautiful during the summer, it really seems to come to life this time of the year. We have lots of friends who own houses with nice lawns. And the lawn outside our apartment is actually a perfect spot for picnics with kids, just bring strawberry lemonade and cinnamon rolls and go out there. I have realized that the rule must go something like this: If you don’t own a lawn of your own, go sit on somebody elses… And believe me, I do.

Sun is shining. The weather is sweet. I am still swamped with school assignments and I will remain that way until next Friday, 11:00 am. (We will have our last quiz 10:30 am…) Today I will take my books and go sit outside and study. I need all the energy that the sun can provide for me. My barefoot feet need to feel some grass under them. I need to meet a couple of lady bugs and butterflies. I need to pin a flower in my hair. My hippie soul lives and breathes the beautiful greens of this season. It is gorgeous out there now. I might try to do to some kind of a photo post tomorrow to try and show you all. Until then, take care. / Jo.

Sorry folks...

No 55 today... I have been working so hard this week with my school assignments, and on top of that I have been doing some teaching too. In addition, a lot of things have been going on with my family as well. I have been really swamped with things to do, and even though this has eaten a lot of my energy, it has given me some in return as well... I haven’t been able to write anything for my blog though, and I haven’t had time to visit you guys much either and I am sorry about that…

I decided to google for the perfect picture to use as I try to write a post that will allow you to get an image of what has been going on in my mind recently. This class I am taking, Nature and sustainable development, has been messing with my head big time. That is not always entirely a bad thing. But the other day as my teachers decided to be a little bit "spontanious" and give us another three (!) heavy lab assigments due next week, this is how I felt:

And this is how I feel still. I am hoping it will pass during this weekend.

55 - Fall on me

it’s wet and wild

it’s good for me

i need it in order to grow

going out there and letting it embrace me

taking shelter from it or letting it cover me

breathing it

smelling it

listening to the music it brings

heavy on the rooftops

gentle at the windows

fall on me

beautiful rain

Theme Thursday: Pets

Just imagine I’d be doing a blog post about pets… Since I am in a desperate need for a break from current school assignments, I have decided I’ll give it a try. I will not, however, use that picture. Somebody commented that it had too much cuteness in it. I agree. That picture was a massive cuteness OD. And I will not even go there…

So what can I tell you about pets? I am not really a cat person. Cats always seem so much smarter than me, and I’m worthless dealing with that… Birds in general, in my opinion, should not be kept in cages. Fish belong in the sea. Rats are far too intelligent to be held hostages by humans. Turtles belong in the wild. But I do love dogs. I really love dogs. And they love me. Dogs are like that, they love everyone… I believe that if some people were more like dogs, this would be a better world. But then again, if that was the case, I guess a lot of people would end up getting arrested too, since dogs seem to enjoy making love in public…

One day I want to have a dog of my own. A big dog. A Scooby-Doo kind of dog. We will take long walks together. I will train him. I will try to challenge his abilities. He will not be allowed in my bed, but it’d be OK to put his bed in my bedroom. If he doesn’t have a lot of gas. In that case his bed will be put somewhere else. A big dog eats a lot of food. A lot of food costs a lot of money. A poor teacher student doesn’t have a lot of money. And therefore, the dog part of my life will have to wait until I get a job. Or until I retire, maybe, considering I really want to be able to actually spend time with my dog too, not just leave him at home all by himself all day while I’m at school working and teaching. Dogs deserve people who care, people who love them and cherish them. Until I get a dog of my own, I’ll just continue hugging other people’s dogs and let them lick me in my face.