Sometimes words are just not enough
Find out about four elements that captures your reading experience. And are very much part of your daily life. Perhaps even more than you realize.
Let’s go straight to the point!
When writing there are four elements that needs to be captured in words: Light, darkness, silence and noise. They create the atmosphere, the tension, tells the setting of the story and stirs up the imagination of you as reader.
For decades writers spent hours and hours trying to describe these four elements in their stories. So did I. In the process of learning I would go somewhere and just start writing everything I saw, smelt and heard. I watched as people passed by, sat with me on a bus, or waiting anxiously, like me, for a doctor’s appointment. I absorbed everything. Later I wrote every detail could I remember from that moment. Appearance, clothes, conversations, how it smelt like, the temperature. This way I taught myself to write in details.
Typing them into a document was a bit of a challenge as the occupational therapist did not allow me to use the laptop whilst lying down. Leaving me sometimes frustrated as my head wanted more than my ability to sit on a chair. Nevertheless, slowly I found a way. Taking my time to write, I captured the elements silence and light in the story Spaghetti. Light and noise come nicely together in Family Portrait. Lastly darkness and light are captured in Worm.
Now let me explain how I was reminded that these four elements are so much part of my personal life and well being.
Light and darkness
Recently I got an email from somebody I had not heard from a while:
‘Finland, what a beautiful country, I was there once. Nature there is so incredible. But if I want to live there during wintertime? I don’t know if I could cope with the darkness?!
Her question struck me. How did I manage to reside my first winter period in Finland? Well, besides trying to catch a little light every day and taking my vitamin D tablet, something else happened. Let me try to explain through Eero Järnefelt’s painting called: Talvimaisema, or Winter landscape.
He painted this in 1900. Where does your eye draw to at first? For me it is the light. Behind the high tree tops, the final reflection of the sun is just enough to capture the vaguely painted silhouette of the forest. Soon the moon will provide just enough light. It will be a different outlook, but the landscape remains the same.
That is what made me understand what all Fins do. I learnt that, despite darkness, things stay the same. We are reminded of that by welcoming the little rays of light. In other words:
We need darkness to appreciate just a little sparkle of light.
At the same time we need light to embrace all shades of the darkness.
Silence and Noise
I am one of those people who now and then needs to escape the city noise. You as well? Perhaps you are planning this summer to go somewhere in the outdoors like the seaside or the mountains. At least escape the street noise.
When you arrive at your holiday destination your body is still full of adrenaline. Your thoughts are rushing about that last phone call you made, or that email that should have been written. Then comes that great moment your brain switches of and you become aware of your holiday surrounding and silence. In that silence you start hearing your own breathing, the gentle breeze of the wind, a bird singing, a branch breaking, footsteps that pass by your summer cottage.
When I stood in that forest shooting these thirty seconds, I was mesmerized by the total silence. For the first time in my life I truly understood:
We need silence in order to hear the sounds.
We need sounds to listen to the silence.
During the summer period I am having a break from my two weekly routine of writing. Occasionally I will write a summer inspirational update!
For now going offline is the best way to embrace myself with light, darkness, silence and noise.
I wish the same for you!