Now I know why it’s called ‘seventh’ heaven – it takes only seven steps to get there. I stumbled upon this revelation while doing the Spring Circular, the 10km round robin walk with which I’ve been savouring the season’s renewal. A...
This thoughtful reminder of the splendour of everyday happiness made its way into the nuannaarpoq pipeline long before the world we love was swept by pandemic. How many of those in quarantined ‘exile’, or ill, or on their deathbed may be recalling with...
One of the tricks of nuannaarpoq living, as far as I can see, is to remain wide-eyed and open-hearted, to view and experience things as if they are new, even if they are quotidian. It is this quality, along with sheer unbounded exuberance, which wins Zorba a...
Vasily Grossman, who lived through and witnessed some of the vilest episodes of human history, never lost his belief in humanity as embodied in the smallness of an individual human being with quirks, dreams, longings and a capacity for love and kindness.He is, for me,...
An unusual take on the link between longing and being fully alive. Perhaps the Dalai Lama would question its validity, but I believe he would show compassion towards its all too human weakness. And I don’t see this view as being contrary to an all-pervasive...
I notice more and more things. Recently saw a tiny new wildflower appear on our laissez-faire lawn. A new wild creeping thyme creeping in a new spot. A new pale blue butterfly I’ve never seen before. A new hedgehog ambling across the garden at the same time as...
Laurie Lee captures a moment of being fully alive and fully alone, during his long, hot walk across Spain in the 1930s at the age of 18. Alone, not lonely. As you know, you can be happy in solitude, and lonely in company. The book is a wonderful evocation of walking,...
A touching reminder by Oscar Wilde, a complex character, that we are here to live, not to exist, though many people face circumstances that make it a miracle if they manage this feat. ‘To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is...
Yes, sign me up!
For notes from nuannaarpoq
Thank you! You have now signed up for Notes from Nuannaarpoq
