Hi dear student,
Can we remember our own voices and dreams?

Most of us are addicted to little handheld devices that bombard us with random information, messages, music and commercial ads we have not consciously and carefully selected. The lure of seemingly cost-free communication with loved ones and clients has even the suspicious ones among us succumb to the lure of the online genie.

What to do? If we thought those incredible tools would unite the world in a great effort to establish world peace and counterbalance global warming, we were obviously mistaken. If we thought that true information would penetrate ignorance and that history lessons learned would avoid the repeating of the same horrendous human crimes all over again, we have been disappointed.

That was the dark part of my newsletter today. Now comes the peptalk:

Most folks on my mailing list still have many choices! We can heal the phone addiction and start f.ex. by choosing a “traditional” alarm clock to wake us up in the morning to avoid the instantaneous cyberspace bombardment at least until we have taken the time to breathe into our own being, unpolluted. We can choose to meditate and read a book. Remember books, they are awesome. Remember meditation and mindfulness, yes, also you can reap the proven benefits.

Hi dear student,
Why do I promote carving and building puppets so much? Because I know what potential benefits it has not only for the world in general but especially for the one carving.

The act of creating, the focus needed to succeed leaves a significant mark on the creator. That is if we hone a mindset that truly allows us to reap the benefits of this process. If we carry our judgemental thinking, our rushing foreward to our workbench we are missing the point. The true gift of creating is slowing down, not speeding up, it is about savouring the moment more than projecting into a possible future outcome.

We have decided to undertake the journey of learning to carve and build puppets because it has been calling us, now we might be wise to truly enjoy the process of learning; choosing the right piece of wood, savouring every pencil stroke, every wood-chip, the sound of slicing, drilling and sawing, the smell of the wood, the careful attention to detail, adjusting the many parts until they fit together … the becoming of a one of a kind wooden puppet, born from your hands and I dare say born from your heart and soul.

Hi dear student,
What can I possibly say today that will support you keep moving on and keep bringing light into the shadow of hate, fear and deception clouding our precious world?

If you are in the center of terror, I am completely out of my league …I simply cannot claim to know what I would do if bombs would kill my children, neighbors and friends. Pick up a gun or dig out my Puppets from under the rubble and keep doing puppet shows? My believe is that puppets are more powerful, but that is easy to say from my save heaven on a little island close to the arctic circle.

I send messages of hope to my friends in Iran, Israel and Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, and all the places I was once so fortunate to travel with my puppets where now the grim, ugly claw of war and destruction defies the calling of humanity. I send messages of love and compassion sharing with them that I hope they will soon play with puppets again, that their children will see soulful Art, songs of beauty and listen to stories of the power of kindness.

I have not experienced war, I was only raised by a generation so deeply impacted by everything that seems to be repeating itself now despite all we could have learned but did not. I am forever grateful that they made it possible for me and encouraged me to invest in music, education and travel the world, that they were proud of me being a puppeteer and always supported my unorthodox ways of carving out a career in one of the most underrated yet powerful professions in the arts.

Hi dear student,
How are you doing? I hope that this newsletter, the first after a longer brake, finds you in good spirits, despite all the chaos going on in the world.

How can we best stay sane and productively active these days? Like always, an attitude of service might also serve ourselves the best. It can help keeping our focus and determination in even the worst of situations. There is ALWAYS an opportunity to plant a seed of hope, to share a dose of inspiration and a random or concrete act of kindness.

Also, let us remember that the world has always been a crazy place of chaos and plight. But people before us have moved on despite all the odds, and so can we. Whatever we might be facing now, can drive us on to truly give our best, to make our voices count, to make our Art count. We move on as well and give our best!

Is this a call to action? Well, here it comes, maybe we will need some deep rest first, maybe we need to realign, re-think and re-feel how we want to proceed in our lives, and how to best spend our precious energy. If the world is spinning too fast and loud for us, we might want to look for some stillness and silence in our own private lives. This at least is what I needed to do for a while before finally sitting down again to write this newsletter.