Nostalgia and Sun

Hi Friends,

It has been a few months since my last post. There has been a lot going on, which I assume you have read between the lines. :)

Cayo Largo del Sur, Cuba

Cayo Largo del Sur, Cuba

One highlight was a group trip to Cuba in February (my other talent is languages, so I was the group's Spanish-Finnish translator.) If I could sum up Cuba in three words, they would be colors, ideology, nostalgia. I believe Cuba is on the cusp of a new era as it continues to open up more, but one cannot seem to escape the past there, not least with the crumbling colorful buildings and the roaring 1950s American cars everywhere.

I can cheerfully say that I have better business and life habits than I did last year. I don't generally work until 10 pm, and I am exercising more regularly. I have gotten my office in order with a nice worktable that moves up and down so I don't silently kill myself by sitting all day! I am enjoying teaching more English classes this season (check out Litera Tec), which I find a friendly balance to NorsuArt.

Cuban art. What colors!

Cuban art. What colors!

Also, Spring. It is coming. The arrival of Spring on the farm means many things like planting and trimming apple trees. It also means lengthening days and the world turning greener day by day.

The seasons in Finland continue to mark time for me in a way that I never thought about in my youth in Ecuador, where such drastic changes of temperature were not part of the equatorial weather patterns of the jungle. But now I love to note the returning of the swans and the melting of the ice on the lake. The wisdom of life is to understand that it is composed of seasons, someone wise once shared with me.

This season will be a good one.