Living in a fairytale

I am living in a fairytale. Thanks to your support over the last 2 years I was brave enough to submit some of my poems I wrote on my blog to the poetry twentyten project....and guess what? Two of my poems were choosen and showcased among really good real poets.

Oh and yes I must make more time now to write poems again and of course to visit you all soon.
Love marja

Quote of the week

(the  faces on the picture are part of a construction in the water in Hagley Park. Water is sprayed against it which makes them go round)


I think when you’re an adult you start to like the very things that make you different. If you obsess about some defect, you make it obvious to everyone, and suddenly everyone is staring at just that defect. It’s always like that. The more you hide something, the more it shows. But when you accept your defect, suddenly no one on earth sees it anymore.
Audrey Tautou, in an interview in Allure magazine

Learning to think

Sometimes I hear that the amount of what children learn in New Zealand is far less than what they learn in Holland. That may be right but that doesn't have to be a disadvantage. In New Zealand they put more emphasis on less academic subjects like art. Art is good to balance the brain. Your brain works best if you make as much use of the left and the right part of the brain.
We are lucky here that a lot of learning is not confined to books. The children go to the beach to examine rock pools. There is lots of outdoor education. Some schools have vegie gardes etc.
When you include many senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, you are more likely to retain the information and when you have fun you learn better too.
But the best thing is that my children learned thinking skills. A skill which I think is essential for all children and should be taught at all schools.  When you just learn to memorise information without questioning it,this is like swallowing food without knowing what you eat. The latter of course happens a lot as well in western society.
My daughter learned the thinking skills of Edward the Bono at primary school. He says that thinking has to be learned and that very intelligent people are not automatically better thinkers but that intelligence can work against it. He says that if an intelligent person has a view on something than they use their intelligence to defend that view. Therefore there is never the need for him/her to explore the subject again.
My son did a philosophy course at high school in which he learned critical thinking and to question things. We surely noticed this as he became good in reasoning. He learned about Socrates , a Greek philosopher who was one of the founders of western philosophy. Socrates asked questions like what is beauty and what is wisdom.

Furthermore I found a nice story which teaches you to think (before you gossip)

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.One day one fellow met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?""That's right," Socrates continued.
"Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.
The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't know if it's true or not.
Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?""No, on the contrary...""So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true.
You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. Friend, use this triple filter each time you hear loose talk about any of your near and dear friends.

Have a great day and take time to think. Love Marja

Quote of the week

"A man of peace is not a pacifist; a man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world, he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way his very way of live is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. Whomsoever he touches, he creates more love-energy. The man of peace is creative. He is not against war, because to be against anything is to be at war. He is not against war; he simply understands why war exists. And out of that understanding he becomes peaceful. Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will the war disappear.'"  Osho

The Kaikoura Coast Track

Just back from our first 3 day walking track. I read the blog of Robb, an American in the North Island, who writes a lot about tramping in this beautiful country. Tramping is in his blood and he writes about it in a poetic way. I am a bit of a wuzz so I haven't reached that state yet.
On Saturday my husband, my American friend Elizabeth and moi, left for Kaikoura to spend a day in one of my favourite places. It is 2 1/2 hours drive North of Christchurch.
Kaikoura is famous for whale watching. Whales can be seen about 20 km of shore. About 15 km of shore the sea floor dives to depths of over 1000 metres and also because of lots of plankton in the ocean, there is an abundance of sealife at the coast of Kaikoura.
We first walked along the cafe's and had a nice lunch and than we strolled along the Kaikoura Peninsula over the rocks where many seals bask in the sun. As you can see on the pictures below we had a marvellous sunny day so we basked a bit in the sun as well.

Hypnotised by the sun painting crystals on a turquoise sheet

Hypnotised by the lulleby of the waves crushing against the shore

I loose myself
I loose myself and become one with with the elements of a paradise called Aotearoa/ New Zealand

Loaded with energy we went of to the Staging post, a sheep station 50 km South of Kaikoura towards Christchurch again. We stayed the night there after we roamed around the buidings and collection of old farm machinery. We had our own room with bunk beds and in the little lounch we bumped into the others who were all experienced trampers.

The following morning we were dropped of by the van, 9 km from the staging post at the beginning of the track. The clouds started to open up and droplets were attracted to us as beas to honey. We went up through the forest to the top and raindrops multiplied like mad. The magnificent views were completely covered with clouds and we were happy to reach the shelter of the skull peak day hut. What I got out of it is that a warm cup of tea tasted here like heaven. We arrived at our second accomodation and learned that our jackets and shoes didn't pass the test of being weather proof.

Luckily we brought hats. Just before we left I noticed we didn't have any warm hats at home. I found an orange one my brother gave me,a Dutch iceskating hat and I bought one at the $2 dollar shop. That one was the best buy of the year. It was the only piece of clothing which kept dry inside.We were warmly welcomed at our accommodation with seaview, with a glas of selfmade lemonade and spend the rest of the afternoon around the fire playing games, reading and chatting. Oh and the warm shower was wonderful.

The second day was great. No rain. We started with a 2 hour walk along the beach (see right picture) in mull sand were your feet left deep inprints.  But I enjoyed it and laughed when William nearly stumbled into a seal. Than we cruised through a beautiful forest where we were followed for a long time by a black fantail who fluttered before our eyes. At the end of this great day we arrived at the farm were we spend the night in our own private gorgous little cottage. As you can see on the picture because of the pittoresk windows around half of the cottage, we could see the  paddock with fruit trees and sheep.

The third and last day we left at 8.30 am. I woke up being very dizzy and nasea. Very weird. It slowly dissappeared during the walk.

The first hour as we climbed up we stil had great views over the sea and than....yes rain again. We slowly conquered the sometimes steep slopes towards the peak at the 650 mtrs high mount Wilson. Drizzle turned into pouring rain but it wasn't as cold as on the first day. On arrival we took a Brtitish couple with us to Christchurch as they had to catch a plane to Auckland where they lived.

and after unpacking at home I stretched out like the sealion above. Again waking up a bit dizzy and unwell but I can relax and blog today.

Quote of the day