Just a moment ago I was enjoying our Sunday dinner cooked and prepared by my daughter Tindra. She is 14 and she loves to cook, and this time she experimented with rice and dry-fried tofu and vegetables. The meal was delicious, as usual.

But something else also happened during the meal, something that shook the foundations of my identity in a healthy and delicious way. As we sat down for our meal Tindra expressed her annoyance for it being already so dark outside. True to my nature I countered gently: “Yes it’s dark, but you absolutely choose your attitude towards it, Tindra.” She answered joking that“ as a frail old man close to death you have had many more winters to get adjusted to it.” That is true…

There is a phenomenon of counterwill, which I was recently introduced by Dr. Gabor Maté in his book Scattered Minds. By it he means the will of a developing child to go forcibly against the will of the parent without really being conscious of her own will, which is common in the age of 3-4 and later in the teens. We have experienced a lot of it with my daughter the sole parent of whom I have been since her mother died seven years ago. But still it was good to get a description for it… Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I had some time in the local town before I would attend a 5rhythms dance session in the evening. I love dancing and especially dancing to the five rhythms of flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness forming a naturally meditative session of movement. The dance becomes a wave of life, of birth, death and renewal… of profound joy.

I had not danced for over a half a year. But now was the time… even though I felt a bit stiff and tired in my body after having worked a lot in the garden these past weeks. I would just give my being a chance to flow, and it usually does:)

But as I already told you I had some time before the dance, and my feet took me to a bookshop where I browsed the shelves with English pocket books. I found a book by Gabor Maté, a renowned Canadian physician. I had read two other books by him: When The Body Says No and In The Realm of The Hungry Ghosts and been greatly influenced by his intelligence and genuine will to uncover the hidden structures of human development. This new book was about ADD and was called Scattered Minds. I put it in my pocket and went to dance. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear reader

It’s been quite a while since I have posted on my blogg. Living my life has demanded all my attention and I have also lately written mostly in Finnish, my mother tongue, as I have re-entered the Finnish book market after a 20 year pause. Read the rest of this entry »