waking up to blue

Blue is all around me these days. I wake up to the blue light of early winter mornings, sit by a blue wall, heat water in my blue kettle, make tea in my blue pot and drink it from my blue cup. I look into the blue eyes of my husband. I catch glimses of my own in the mirror. Blue is everywhere this February.

I love the quiet blue carries. It is my companion these days, and something of a friend.

I feel like scribbling out some sort of self-reflection right now. Resolutions for this New Year are just beginning to form. I want to talk about dreaming, hoping, humility, life. But I don’t know much about these things, today, just the small, necessary pieces I have carried with me this winter. Perhaps I will have more to say when I befriend the greenness of spring.

Happy blue February, friends. Spring is almost here.

The current challenge over at SPC asks which of the four elements you most identify with: earth, water, fire, or air.

I identify with air. It is my favourite. To me, air means space and life in your lungs. Air gives you room to run and something to breathe. Few things stir me more than a big, gust of it flying at my face (preferably a bit cold and smelling like October).

I’m quite in love with it, really.

What’s your element?

The self portrait challenge this month is to show yourself in your natural environment. My natural environment is a sidewalk full of colourful little surprises (and most sidewalks are). I love to walk. Plop me in any town, and I will be content to explore on foot for hours and hours. There is always a treasure to find or some quiet thought to hold. From my first day in Romania, I took long walks that gained me bags of sea glass and prayers and obscure adventures. In Norway, there were many walks of solitude. The ones in Alvdal were painted with sunsets (I’ve never seen sunsets like I have there). In Oslo, little treasures are tucked in here and there: a bakery, those faces at the coffee shop, rose cups, graffiti, a snowy bookshop.

And I love to walk at home. I like my walks to work or to class. I like my walks to nowhere in particular. I like walks in every season, even winter when they freeze my toes. Adam stole my heart by taking me on walks last autumn. And then we went on walks where he secretly stole my kisses before we were “official”. I love walking with my dear friends. I love walking when it’s just me.

This is nothing super-cool or inspirational. It’s just me in my natural environment: comfy shoes, a skirt, and a sidewalk scattered with treasure.