Some minutes of light

We are in the middle of December now, and for many weeks we haven’t even seen a glimpse of the sun. It’s been hidden under a thick layer of clouds. And december is a very dark time of the year even if its a clear sky, since we only can see the sun for about an hour above the treetops before it goes back down. 
But in some way I really love this time. I love the extremes. The very dark December, and the very light June. The midnight sun and the polar night. 
It’s so special and magical in some way. 

But today, we FINALLY saw the light from the sun again. It was still behind clouds but it was so beautiful to just see the light and the beautiful colors on the sky. That really made my day! I flew up with my drone so that I could take a photo of it. 

It’s only in the contrasts where we really can appreciate life. We need the darkness to see the light. We need the cold to feel the warmth. We need to put ourself in discomfort to appreciate the comfort. 
And every year this time I get the same deep feelings of gratitude for the light and the sun. It’s ok to live in darkness for a long time each year just to get this feeling when standing in the window and suddenly feel a little ray of sunlight hitting your face. It’s like being flushed with a wave of love. It’s like I wanna cry every time.

Our cat Nayeli must have also felt very happy about the little sunlight we got today, since she sat in the window looking out for a long time while the sun was visible. 

My beautiful home. I took this photo of the village today. And I always love to see Grundtjärn from far away. It really gives you perspective of how far away we live from towns, cities and streetslights. All you can see is forest everywhere. 

I wanted to share with you about a book I got back in October, that I recently started reading. It means a lot to me, since it’s a friend of mine who wrote it. His name is Pelle Lundström, and I am sure my old, fellow blogreaders that’s been reading my first blog has seen him in some earlier posts. 

I first got to know him on a Nordic conference in Finland back in 2015. He held a speech together with his friend and colleague Lena, which really moved me and inspired me a lot. They worked in a “youth center” for teenagers called Kåken and did so much amazing work for young people. They were so passionate about what they did! Later the same year I was invited to their center “Kåken” to have a speech myself, and it was so much fun to see them again!

Lena, me and Pelle after the speech at Kåken, in May 2015.

Next time I saw Pelle was when he came visiting my art exhibition in 2016. And after that we been seeing each other once a year as he spontaneously comes visiting me and Johan sometime in the summer every year, which we always appreciate so much! (We didn’t meet this crazy year though, but we will have to meet extra long next time 🙂 )

 

Pelle is one of the most inspiring people I know. Ever since the first time I met him I’ve been fascinated by the stories he have told from his life. I have always wondered why there isn’t a film made about him. I love when he comes visiting us and we never want him to leave since its SO interesting to just sit and talk with him, about anything!

A few years ago he started writing a book about his life and all the experiences he has gone through and all the lessons he have learned along the way. I was SO happy about that! And now in October, after many years of work and writing, I got this book sent to me. It’s called “Från bränt barn till eldsjäl”, which is hard to find a good translation for in English, but maybe something like ” From a burnt child to a fire soul”.
I actually cried a little tear as I hold it in my hands. 
I just felt so thankful that he actually did it! He has so much to share and his experiences can be of so much help and inspiration to others.

I know he put his heart and soul into this, and I almost felt as if I held a piece of his life in my hands. I was so happy! 
And now I recently started reading it (I wanted to wait until I really had more time and peace in my soul to take it in) and I have come a little less then half way into the book. It brings up a lot of feelings reading what he has gone through already as a young child and it’s interesting to see how even the smallest things can be a big change in a child’s life. From his perspective now it’s so much easier to see where things went wrong and why it lead into a path where he ended up in prison as a young adult.

It made me realize the importance that the adults have in young peoples life’s. How things like not being trusted or seen or respected can actually destroy someones life for good. It leads into a path that later on leads into a worse path and so it goes on…

Even though I have not read the whole book yet, I know that this book is about change.
That everyone can change and that everyone deserves to get a chance to change. It’s never to late.

Pelle really did that. He started off really hard with criminality and violence but totally changed the path of his life and are now the most shining soul I know…a real “fire soul” that inspires so many people. 
I am so, so thankful for this. 

Pelles book “Från bränt barn till Eldsjäl”

The book is in Swedish and I know most of you who read this does not speak Swedish, but for those who do and are interested in reading his book you can find it HERE.
And if you ever wanted to learn Swedish but just waited for a good reason, now this is the reason 😉

I wanted Nanook to pose with the book, since Pelle is Nanook’s favorite human on this earth. He always gets over the moon excited when Pelle comes. 

Pelle and Nanook on our kitchen floor, summar 2019 🙂 

I was going to take a photo of the text that Pelle wrote to me in the book but Nanook put his paw on the page and my heart melted! So I just had to add this photo as well since it looked so cute 🙂 

I was sooo happy to read this. I will try to translate it for you:
“Best Jonna. You and Stjärnfödd/Starborn has been with me as inspiration through every page of my book“

Stjärnfödd/Starborn is one of my photo artprints that he owns and that has been with him during these years that he’s been writing his book. 

Thank you with all my heart Pelle! I can’t wait to continue reading your book now! ♥

Find his book here

It was a while ago since my last blogpost. It’s really been a crazy half year with so much work in many different ways, so I still feel like I try to catch up with everything. I still haven’t found that rythm I am searching for. But both me and Johan have been working really hard these months so I think thats why it feels like we are always a few steps behind with everything else.
But that is ok and I am not stressing about it. And I know for sure that now as Christmas comes things will slow down. 

We are in the darkest time of the year now and I feel like things are suppose to go slow now. Its a good time for sitting in front of the fire. Drinking tea. Reading a book. Mediate. Make good food. All those cozy things that I’ve been longing for. 
So now during Christmas that will be our number one focus. 

I really hope you aswell, wherever you are, will take some time to yourself and calm down. I know December can be such a crazy month. Its good to remind ourselves to slow down and breath. 

I will end this superlong blogpost now with my 3 last videos that I had not yet shared here on the blog! Maybe you have already seen them, but I will share them here anyway. My last video was actually published yesterday, and it’s a 3 hour long ice song that I recorded from the “singing ice” now in November. I really recommend listening to these sounds if you want to relax. I really like to have the ice sounds in the background while writing or reading or just relaxing. 

I want to wish you all a beautiful week! Take care and I see you soon!
Much love to you all! ♥