Morning Glory

On my way to Bucharest I was lucky to catch a great sunrise and simply had to stop the car and take some photos. The little church in the middle of the field looked marvelous too. These were taken an hour and a half before sunrise and I admired the rest of the morning spectacle from inside the car, as I was rushing to Bucharest and couldn't afford to lose any time.
However, it was a great morning to leave home, cause it made my day brighter, despite feeling sad for my departure.

Enya- Morning Glory

Creating Happiness

I opened a fortune cookie on Facebook today (I know, it might sound silly) but found something which I've many times thought about, yet never managed to put it so simple. It said "Some pursue happiness. You create it." I don't know if I create it but I really struggle to do so.
If happiness is only about obtaining, then it may not be attainable, cause you will always have needs. In this case going for happiness is a never ending pursuit. On the other hand, if happiness is your creation, it means you've managed to see the bright side of the things you already have.Even if you don't get a certain thing, creating happiness means squeezing the best of your current situation, enjoying them and setting new goals.
When you try to create your happiness is doesn 't mean you stop fighting, or that you settle for less. It means cherishing the things you have, while pursuing the things you want, and not focusing only on the outcome. Lets' face it, the whole universe is not always plotting to make a strong wish of yours come true. Sometimes it may not come true at all. So what's left to do then? Declare that you are not happy? From my point of view that is the point where you you start to create your happiness. Analyzing what you have might get you to discover things that you have forgotten about during your pursuit, and might offer you resources for new dreams and new plans.
I guess happiness depends more on us than on the other people or things. Like a friend of mine said: nothing and no one is irreplaceable. So let's become artists and try to create our happiness from anything that we have, whether it's gold or ash.

Cat Power - Maybe Not

The ultimate hope

I am now reading one of the most wonderful books I've ever read, The Karamazov Brothers by Dostoevsky and just as I was breathtakingly reading, trapped into the realm of human passion and sorrow and digging into the meaning of the characters' assertions, I remembered a real case, one of the most popular this summer.
It was when I got back from my trip that I found out about a monk priest video recorded while having sexual intercourse with another man . As a punishment he was sent to another monastery and lost his rights as a priest, remaining a simple monk. This decision displeased a number of people stating that he shouldn't have the opportunity to be a monk anywhere anymore. As far as I understood, the guilty monk is really trying to make amends and got himself interned to get a proper treatment.
Now this is what I remembered while reading a polemic discussion between Dostoevsky's characters Abbot Zosima and Ivan Feodorovici. Ivan, an intelligent man of letters stated that in order for Russia to become a prosper country, the Church law should bind with the civil law, so that any crime against the state would become a crime against Church. In his oppinion that would prevent crime, since Russian people are such devoted believers. Abbot Zosima, an old wise monk rejects his opnion while trying to emphasize the true meaning of the Church. Unlike the civil law whose punishments stigmatizes the guilty and deprives them of their rights, the Church offers them the possibility to atone themselves. The guilty know that they have no possibility to be forgivven in the eyes of the state, but they know they are not totally lost, because as long as Church exists and appreciates a criminal's atonement, their feeling sorry is not worthless. But what would happen if those two laws combined? A criminal would have no refugee, no one left to forgive him, not being able to fit in any form of order. This is why Abbot Zosima says that the two laws cannot combine, since the Church accepts everyone and its law remains a hope when the other law ends. The punishment of the Church is not ultimate (one can be forgiven), but sometimes for a criminal the Church is the ultimate hope.
From my point of view, the monk involved in the scandal got the right punishment and shouldn't be forbidden to be a monk anymore, as long as this is what he still wants. The Church gave him the possibility to atone himself and to be forgiven, a possibility which many of the ones who judged this scandal do not give.
That's it for now, but I will probably post something more about this book, The Karamazov Brothers, as there are many things in it which laid a mark on myself.

Lisa Gerrard - Sanvean (I am your shadow)

Metaphorical Realism

While enjoying my last lazy days before college, I started seeking more information on some of the things that impressed me most during this summer. Among those is an exhibition of the Russian-born painter Vladimir Kush, now living in the USA. His work is very close to surrealism, but he refers to his art as metaphorical realism, a concept which I find very appropriate. Now I must tell you I don't know much about painting and when I visit a museum, or art gallery I see everything through the eyes of an admirer, who can either be touched or not by the paintings. I cannot analyze their quality or other technical aspects, I can only tell you whether they enchanted me or not.
What impressed me is that Kush's paintings all reveal an idea. They are the plastic side of a metaphor. He paints real things, but the originality lies in the assotiations he makes, which send to another level of understanding. In his works, different things combine in a metaphorical unity which resembles the world the poet Baudelaire describes in his Corespondence poem : Like extended echoes which mingle far away/ In a mysterious and profound unity / Vast as the night and as ligh/ Perfumes, colors and sounds answer each other.

Here are some of the paintings which I've seen at the exhibition:

Pillow Book

Moonlight Sonata

Anticipation of a Night's Shelter

Music of the Woods

Ship and Sea

Please listen the song for today, as it really matches the ambient of the paintings!
Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No.3 (orchestrated by Debussy)

Just an autumn post

Autumn seen from one of my dearest places - Vlasinesti, the village where my grandparents live and where I spent most of my childhood. I love autumn, all its colors, the smell of grapes, the falling leaves and the soft sun. Maybe I'm weird, but I love autumn and hate spring.
What I've really been into lately is reading some tips on digital photography and experimenting with my new camera, so the photos are the most appropriate things to post on the blog for now.

Patrick Wolf - Thickets

Stuck

And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part

Sometimes it's not the ups and downs of a situations that are overwhelming, but the CHANGE, even the change that might be for the better. You get used to something, you find it natural like it's the way it's supposed to be, you even overlook some outrageous downsides of the situation, finding some imaginary compensation, or just indulging yourself. Accepting it's not the hardest part.
I admire those who took the change within their stride and pushed the wheel forward when something didn't work anymore, whether that implied leaving their job, their country, their home, or someone dear.

Cause that's the hardest part

Coldplay - The hardest part

And everything has an end...

It seems that every time I have to deal with a limited period of time I want to live it to the fullest, not feeling scared for a second that I might give it all in and feel a little lost when it all ends. There usually is a defensive mechanism, but sometimes when you really want to be happy you have to let the protective walls around you fall down. Ignoring the upcoming end, though the end itself was what helped me appreciate even more the time which I had spent with the people I love.
It's all or nothing for me, cause when it ends I want to know that I've once had it all.

Au Revoir Simone - All or nothing