Rhubarb Cake and Friluftsliv

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein

Hello Friend,

Come in, come in. I’ve just taken the rhubarb cake out of the oven and it smells DELICIOUS!

I have one rhubarb plant, and this year it has flourished in all the rain. It’s the first year I’ve had enough rhubarb to bake a whole cake. You have timed your visit perfectly. It’s not raining, and the crushing heat we’ve experienced recently won’t be a problem in this little corner of our digital world. So, let’s sit out on the patio.

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I learned a new word this week.

Friluftsliv.

I found it in a home design magazine, and its literal translation from Norwegian is “free air life.” Basically, it’s about being active outdoors, connecting with nature, de-stressing.

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“Friluftsliv isn’t about major treks to remote wilderness – it’s about finding moments in nature no matter where you live.”
Veronique Leblanc, Style at Home

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I like the idea of breathing room that friluftsliv implies. I suppose breathing room is different for everybody; for me it’s wide open spaces where I can see forever. And sky. Lots and lots of sky. That’s the prairie girl in me.

However, I have not been Little Girl on the Prairie for several years now, and I can’t often get out to wide open spaces. So, how do I find that breathing room? How do I practice friluftsliv as life gets busier?

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Here in my province, restrictions were fully lifted this week, and I’m sure everyone is anxious to have more breathing room. Not only the breathing room afforded by taking off our masks, but the breathing room that freedom gives. Freedom to go out and do and be, even if you don’t actually go out and do and be. Knowing you have the freedom to do so makes it easier to breathe.

At our house we are entering those final harried weeks pre-wedding. Up until now, all of the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic made our plans flustered and changeable. But suddenly, rock solid plans are in full swing, coming from every-which-where. The usual pre-wedding busy-ness is not usual at all. It’s intensely magnified.

So, I’m repeating the word friluftsliv often, to remind myself that breathing room isn’t only about finding vistas of prairie fields, with far away horizons that separate living skies from lush waving grasses. It’s about “finding moments in nature no matter where you live.” Therefore, I can breathe in the moment of a perfect pink petal in the window boxes of our garden shed.

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Or take a moment to bask in the warm glow of a tiger lily in my garden bed …

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A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Or enjoy rhubarb cake on the patio with a friend, my face lifted to the sun.

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Not only do these chosen moments help one to breathe easier, they bring a vitality to life that is easily depleted when days get so busy.

Vitality: the capacity for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence, the power to live.
Dictionary.com

Ah, power to live. A meaningful existence. Kind of important, wouldn’t you say?

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Thank you so much for your visit today. Here’s a song packed with vitality to listen to as you go. Close your eyes while you listen, feel the breath fill your lungs and the blood pulse through your veins, and be refreshed.

Dear friend, I wish you vitality and breathing room and many moments of friluftsliv in the coming weeks. See you next time, and stay safe out there.

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