Back in Sweden, back to the green, the warm, the lush, the peaceful, the music.
Usually those epithets (maybe with the exception of peaceful) is used going in the other direction but this time it is very true for Sweden. It would take a football World Cup for me to miss out on another summer in Klockargården. How incredible peaceful and beautiful it is...
My excitement of landing in SA got the blog going and I hope the joy of coming home will keep the blogposts flowing even if I have allowed myself a little summer break.
On the topic of homecoming, the first task that awaited me was working with "Stämbandet", a choir from Boston who specializes in Scandinavian music. What a joy to find fellow lovers of our tradition and treasure who travelled far to re-fill their souls with music they love.
I told them that the reason why Dalarna had preserved so much of their cultural heritage was not because it was isolated - rather the opposite. The people of Dalarna had always been travelling, often spending most of the year in Stockholm but always coming home to their roots. I once met a man from Leksand on the Stockholm-train who was the 7th generation of stonemasons who had worked in the capital all their lives but always kept the homestead in Leksand and returned whenever work allowed. That's why we have our songs and art, our dances and craft, because we've been away so much and while away we have kept the memories of our beautiful home alive with our culture.
- But that's just like us, exclaimed the members of "Stämbandet"!
Yes indeed, coming home is the best part of any trip. And culture the best way of finding that home.
I am now preparing for another trip, another homecoming. I am going on a "Sång & Gång", a song-walk on the island of Öland. No journey can be lovelier. To walk and to sing, it just about sums up life's purpose. And to walk in search of the meeting of the road and the horizon, heaven and earth, here and now, with beautiful people in a beautiful surrounding is nourishment like no other for body and soul.
Here you can meet some people from last years walk. Will I meet you there this year?
Usually those epithets (maybe with the exception of peaceful) is used going in the other direction but this time it is very true for Sweden. It would take a football World Cup for me to miss out on another summer in Klockargården. How incredible peaceful and beautiful it is...
My excitement of landing in SA got the blog going and I hope the joy of coming home will keep the blogposts flowing even if I have allowed myself a little summer break.
On the topic of homecoming, the first task that awaited me was working with "Stämbandet", a choir from Boston who specializes in Scandinavian music. What a joy to find fellow lovers of our tradition and treasure who travelled far to re-fill their souls with music they love.
I told them that the reason why Dalarna had preserved so much of their cultural heritage was not because it was isolated - rather the opposite. The people of Dalarna had always been travelling, often spending most of the year in Stockholm but always coming home to their roots. I once met a man from Leksand on the Stockholm-train who was the 7th generation of stonemasons who had worked in the capital all their lives but always kept the homestead in Leksand and returned whenever work allowed. That's why we have our songs and art, our dances and craft, because we've been away so much and while away we have kept the memories of our beautiful home alive with our culture.
- But that's just like us, exclaimed the members of "Stämbandet"!
Yes indeed, coming home is the best part of any trip. And culture the best way of finding that home.
I am now preparing for another trip, another homecoming. I am going on a "Sång & Gång", a song-walk on the island of Öland. No journey can be lovelier. To walk and to sing, it just about sums up life's purpose. And to walk in search of the meeting of the road and the horizon, heaven and earth, here and now, with beautiful people in a beautiful surrounding is nourishment like no other for body and soul.
Here you can meet some people from last years walk. Will I meet you there this year?
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