freedom, happiness, moments, sleep
Something magical about moments of morning idleness in idyllic spots. Surely they allow some quiet clean up of over-burdened minds, or just some simple reprieve from restless strivings? But still, leisure has its rewards here as well: idle mornings of meditation in...
authenticity, discovery, enchantment, freedom, happiness, humour, innocence, moments, nuannaarpoq, sharing
We were recently invited to spend a few days with friends at their place on the beach. Among other things, I enjoyed watching children and their families playing in the water and the sand. Barely saw a mobile phone or other e-device, and didn’t see a single...
freedom, resilience
A servant is taken advantage of once too often and swears never again to lower herself, literally or figuratively. Note the task demanded was ‘on her afternoon off’. Joyce’s stint as a general maid in a grocer’s household was cut short only...
freedom, life
As I get older, I have a stronger sense of needing this kind of concentration. So many dreams and projects to realise, filling more space than the (likely) time available to complete them. This has made me less tolerant of things which seem inessential and jejune,...
authenticity, freedom, happiness, moments, nuannaarpoq
Otters are playful and their element is water. Here Gavin Maxwell’s companion Mij, having figured out where the bathroom is, slips between his human handler’s legs and makes a dash for the source of water. By the time I had caught up with him he was up on...
freedom, resilience
A deeply reassuring place this, with sunlit air and safety. .. a different air blew there, and as if there was a brighter sun and a safer daylight. Wishing you a safer daylight wherever you are.  Source: Mary Webb, Precious Bane (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981), p....
freedom, happiness, kindness, resilience, sharing
Freed from labour camp in September 1953, following the demise of Stalin, the few survivors still standing left the camp and headed for the nearby village, where they were given a simple, spontaneous and sensitive welcome.As I was thinking this a girl between eight...
enchantment, freedom, happiness, inspiration, nuannaarpoq
A warm and wise letter written by Kurt Vonnegut in 2006 in response to one received from a class – and its teacher Miss Lockwood – at Xavier High School. It gives nuannaarpoqian advice to young minds (and to Miss Lockwood), and is here read out charmingly...
authenticity, awards, beauty, colour, enchantment, freedom, happiness, humour, imagination, innocence, inspiration, kindness, nuannaarpoq, resilience, sleep
Our fourth nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: John Keats (1795-1821) Parameters:Â 18th-19th centuries, British, real, human, male, now living elsewhere Nuannaarpoq qualities:Â authenticity, creativity, enchantment, happiness, freedom, imagination, kindness, life,...
authenticity, enchantment, freedom, happiness
Beware the gilded cage, although I don’t believe that living a life on the land need contradict individualism. In the sense that you may develop a stronger sense of self and purpose, and a feeling of contributing to something bigger than yourself, it might...
authenticity, freedom, happiness, inspiration, resilience
An interesting piece of aunt-like advice from Martha Gellhorn to Leonard Bernstein.  She emphasises the importance of not only finding a nugget of peace within yourself, and the conditions to nurture it, but the fact that maintaining it is a constant endeavour, if...
authenticity, awards, beauty, colour, enchantment, freedom, happiness, imagination, innocence, inspiration, kindness, life, resilience
Our third nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: Mary Delany (1700-1788) Parameters:Â 18th century, British, real, human, female, now living elsewhere Nuannaarpoq qualities: authenticity, enchantment, imagination, innocence, kindness, resilience References:Â Molly...
beauty, discovery, enchantment, freedom, happiness, life
Yes, sometimes I’m late to the game. Such as ‘discovering’ the Moody Blues in 2021, a mere half century after they were discoverable. We were driving over the Grand St Bernard Pass and had picked up a second hand CD (remember those?) which we...
freedom, resilience
It’s a few years since I read Steinbeck’s account of his visit to the Soviet Union with the photographer Robert Capa. A wonderful book full of humour and empathy. Among the many quotations I jotted down was this one, concerning the time they spent in...
freedom, happiness, humour
Something blithe and enchanting about this description of the man she loves, before she realises that he loves her. He is resilient, upstanding, independent, kind, and merry. She loves him from the get-go, as he does her, though her belief in that takes some...
discovery, freedom, happiness, life, memory, resilience
Ivan is a character, apparently based on Vasily Grossman’s brother-in-law, who survived 30 years in a gulag before being released into ‘normal’ life. He is resilient enough to be able to rediscover the existence of love and kindness, as well as...
freedom, happiness, sleep, time
One of the joys of leaving a job is the growing awareness that waking becomes a natural process, rather than an aural shock. This doesn’t necessarily mean waking late, just naturally, and I still get up as early as I ever did, about six in the winter and five...
discovery, freedom, life, resilience
This man is one who returns from the dead, from decades in a gulag in Siberia, released during one or another political thaw. He returns to ‘normal’ life, and it is interesting to see the signs of it which make him realise it had continued even as he was...
freedom, happiness, inspiration, resilience
Shirley is among the less known works of Charlotte Bronte. At a time when women had considerably fewer options in deploying their energies and talents, Shirley is a strong character with attitude and resources.  I loved the ‘Pah to all that’ feeling in...
beauty, discovery, freedom, moments
Golding took several decades to realize his dream of visiting Ithaca, and a few months to make his own odyssean journey there by way of Troy. Many of his descriptions of this and other Greek islands are intoxicating in their brightness and warmth, particularly as one...
beauty, freedom, happiness, life
This lovely phrase, in a collection of essays by the poet Seamus Heaney, struck me as being in large part what the world is aiming for when it talks about sustainability, sustainable development goals and related rather dry terms. It is combined with an interesting...
freedom
To provide shelter? A roof over your head? Security at night from wolves and thieves? A place to stash your stuff? Yes, maybe, all those things and more. But also this: a place to dream in peace. I talked to her about Gaston Bachelard and his idea that the purpose...
freedom, life
I love hedgehogs and see them as an ambling, loveable, flea-scratching symbol of hope and freedom, as well as the rights of the scruffy and marginal to be scruffy and marginal. If they can survive in your garden, your garden is healthy. If the species survives our...
freedom, happiness, moments, sharing
Here Durrell describes the woman who became his second wife, who joined him in Rhodes after the war. I was struck by the comment that a ‘sad childhood is poor preparation for unexpected happiness’, particularly as there were large parts of my childhood...
