This has been one of those weeks—(two actually) full of activity and exploration that it’s impossible to catch it all and encapsulate it with words. Yet here I am, trying to give you a taste of these ancient roads and gothic structures. The ancient intertwined with contemporary. Last week my host family day was spent on the German boarder at a country farmhouse with 200 curly, golden shaggy haired cows with wonderfully expressive faces. The Galloway cows are Scottish, and known for their durability. The farm is nestled between a Belgian national forest, the German boarder, a Belgian army base and the heath—a massive marsh tuft with long dried golden wispy grass and scraggly trees.
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| But I don't wanna bath! |
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| You looking at me? |
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| This is Scott. He took me for a wee run... :-) |
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| The cows out to pasture. |
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| The trail leading back to the farm, behind us is the National Forest. |
As we drove up toward the farm, winding our way around the narrow country roads cut into small green hills the spring moon was rising—summer orange and pink light faded into the new blue night, the moons face an opaque pink in the falling dusk light. The bare branches of oak and lime-wood trees trace the horizon, their skeletal arms marked black with the buds of new leaves against a deepening dark and dancing in the shadows of the full moon. The farm was finished being built in 1905—at that time the area was still German. The area had been used to harvest peat, which would be utilized as fuel—however it wasn’t very efficient.
These evenings, the company, foreign tongs full of strange tones, music floating in the air, this old world, their culture, a mystic energy seeps into your skin. A fire dances in the hearth… walking through a barn, the smell of hay, the wagging tails of black and brown Burmese mountain dogs, the nuzzles of horses, you realize how many places and ways there are to find happiness. The things we could do and be content with in life. The past week, watching the city dwellers in their daily commute, trudging to and from work I can’t help but feel as though we are meant to live in nature surrounded by the natural world, the air the sky… Yet there is something so wonderful about the proximity of society, the vast numbers of peoples living together sharing music and cultures…
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| He liked to have his rear end scratched. So he was often running between my legs! |
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| Sergio from Mexico, we were having lunch at the Elderly Facility |
I spent two days at a children’s hospital. We sang songs and played games with the kiddos. Safe to say I was outside my comfort zone in the hospital… the smiles of children fighting to live and laugh, their wrestling match with the belief that they are not perfect, when all you need to see the truth is to look in their eyes, see their joy dance, hear the bells of their laughter as they struggle to lift their arms or as needles puncture their skin, blood flows and so to does the purity of their identity. It is not locked in these rooms. It is in their faces and the expression of life.
These weeks give me hope for the world. Seeing all the wonderful things humans do for each other every day. In the midst of the revolutions and riots, in their struggle for equality and peace, the chaos in Japan, there is hope for this world in our human kindness. Every week we stand as a testament to this, as witness to these organizations and individuals who partake in acts of kindness every day. We have to remember and be reminded of why we are here and live in this world. We are here to enrich the lives of others.
The past few days have been full of performances and early morning commutes. Yet, there have also been many wonderful late night conversations both with cast mates in the dressing rooms and on skype with a newfound friend discovered while traveling. It was one of those moments where I wish I could truly articulate and capture these little moments-- these little conversations we have from time to time are... they don't happen as often as you'd think, nor does it happen that I have an opportunity to appreciate that fact, really enjoy the process of a new friendship and just how fantastic that is. Perhaps it could be described as an ethereal energy floating around, somehow incapable of definition.
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| Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule Bruxelles |
One morning, stands out vividly in my mind. Perhaps because of the conversations I’ve been having of late pushing me to be more aware of every moment of beauty. Or perhaps because I was unable to capture any images with my camera as we went to NATO headquarters, which was amazing but limited, us in the types of things we could bring …
A pond of quicksilver splashes the world in a shivering silver sheen. It is bathed in a golden light only dawn can bring. The still waters broken by the gentle bathing of a pearl like swan, its orange beak and white feathers radiant amongst the dead leaves and small green buds of early spring. The gentle arches and broken pointed skyline glow, church steeples, baked gray golden against the blue and white sky. The early morning light gives the world a magical intangible aura. The dichotomy of ancient cathedrals and the contrails of jets crisscrossing the sky frame this beauty… We sit and wait as our bus creeps forward amidst early morning traffic. The golden hue fades replaced with the smog and taillights of our modern world. Yet the light is ethereal, the ether of dawn is ever-present as if the presence of that light is still there hiding behind a veil waiting to be revealed for a few short moments at dusk and dawn…
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| Les Grande Place aka central square of Brussels! |
Words cannot truly express those inner most feelings that lift you up, on those long days, those dark moments, it is these precious few seconds of ethereal intangible goodness that carry us through.
