SELECTED STORIES ON ILLUMINATION-CURATED

“It’s the Most Beautiful When Darkness Falls”

Selected stories by Øivind H. Solheim hosted on ILLUMINATION-Curated

Distributed to #Poetry #Life

Can poetry change lives? I’m not sure, but I would like to believe that it is so. In any case, wise and beautiful poems can have an effect on people who open themselves up to such poems. Good poems can lift us, and they can give us new insights. In this story, I am writing inspired by a poem from a great poet, Pär Lagerkvist (1891 — 1974). He was a Swedish author, member of the Swedish Academy and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1951.

“Everything is given man as a loan”

All excuses for not taking action are bad excuses. Don’t be a victim in your mind

You may be overwhelmed by things in your life. You may suffer from a serious illness or you can have an imagined illness. You may suffer from hurt feelings, deceived ambitions or lack of belief in your own capacities.

When you don’t pay attention it is SO EASY to enter the victim role and to stay there. Every human can choose, and it is of huge importance what role you choose to play in life!

In fact there are so many things that can beat us down to the ground and keep us there. Depression and negative thoughts, often both at the same time, all those unpleasant burdens that can be part of our load as we strive and try to make it our way through life.

Is there a good reason for giving up, for saying “No, I give up, I can‘t go on any longer”?

What if we — instead of focusing on what is bad, difficult and negative — try to see what’s around us, really see the world and the humans around us?

What if we try to watch and listen to the world and to our inner voice, and express what we see and hear — like for instance the Swedish poet Pär Lagerkvist does. His poem “Det är vackrast när det skymmer” (“It’s the most beautiful when darkness falls”) is one of the most evocative poems I know of, when it comes to poems that are expressing what human existence can be and what we as humans are facing in our lives:

It’s the most beautiful when darkness falls All the love heaven holds is gathered in a dim light over the earth, over the house of the field.

Everything is tenderness, everything is touched by hands. The Lord Himself obliterates distant shores. Everything is close, everything is distant. Everything is given man as a loan

Everything is mine, and everything shall be taken from me Soon everything will be taken from me. The trees, the clouds, the ground where I go. I will walk lonely without traces.

A recurring theme in Pär Lagerkvist’s authorship is man’s relationship to God. I do not share Pär Lagerkvist’s belief that there is a god, but this does not prevent me from sharing much of Pär Lagerkvist’s view of man and existence.

The poem shows me an attitude, a positive way of facing human existence and life in general that is more constructive than much of what I have seen, experienced and practiced in life.

It is in our mind that we can choose how we will live our life, how we will see the world and meet other humans and how we will see ourselves in this big picture

We can simply make up our mind to meet the world in a positive, in a negative or in an indifferent way.

It’s up to you, and it’s up to me.

We are all sitting in the driver’s seat of the car of our life, and we can make it a rich and harmonious or a poor and hard journey.

I think of this as opportunities. I have choices all the way.

I can choose to live my life on repeat, I can let myself drown in daily routines, bad habits and anesthetics like alcohol, mindless tv-watching, gambling, smoke, drugs.

I can choose to let go the possibilities life offers, and just exist like a zombie, a dead living, like a vegetable.

Or I can make up my mind to be present in life — in my own life and the life of those nearest to me. I can choose to be mindful and pay attention. There is so much I can do if I care! Here’s a short list of of things to do. Please consider if this is something for you or for someone you know:

1. Start thinking a few deep questions: Who am I? Why am I here?

2. Listen! See those near you!

3. Get rid of bad habits, like smoking, gambling or drinking too much alcohol. Eat healthy! Get enough sleep!

4. Go to the gym, work out! Exercising helps make you feel better! You think better, you work better, you sleep better, you’re in better mood.

5. Get yourself out of passive mode. Be active, move, do things for yourself and together with the people around you who matter to you! The positive outcome is the same as above: Being active is the number one medication to make you feel well.

6. Go and chase good incentives for your mind and soul. Find poems, music, arts that lift you up, that make you feel all right. Go for peak experiences of any kind, enjoy nature, go hiking.

7. Be near your family and friends. Talk, enjoy meals together, make journeys, go for a walk together, watch a good movie or a series. Listen, see others, talk!

8. Once in a week — or at least once in a month — do something you’ve never done before. Think, make plans, try to figure out what you’ve not experienced yet, things that you absolutely would enjoy doing before it’s too late!

All rights reserved. © Øivind H. Solheim, author of novels, poetry, articles, essays, short fiction and experimental writings. This story has been reedited today. It was first published Oct 15, 2018. Contact: [email protected].