Something #9

Ok. Here goes. First of all, let me apologize for the delay in this post. It's not that I don't have anything interesting to post, it's not that anything hasn't happened, it's just been a feeling of an underlying need to make things easier - simplify. I'm still in the process of getting all the papers in order to apply for a visa, but once everything is turned in I will be able to stay past November 30th, the date of my original airline ticket. Thanks to Jon and his tenacity, who went to city hall and asked all the questions with humor and sincerity. It looks like I will be stuck in Belgium as my visa gets processed, but that was the whole point of the application wasn't it?

Yes, it was. I am happy to stay here with Jon, and so glad that things are falling into place here. It's strange how life just keeps clicking right along: before you know it, things become mundane, everyday, and just life. But I still have to catch my breath every time I walk upon the city square here in Leuven. It's just beautiful, I could just pinch myself.

This is where I live?

Really?

Thank you life!

I opened a little package the other day, but as I mentioned in the post before one, it really had me stumped. I spent the next couple of days debating whether or not to open another one, eventually I wrapped up that little something (#8) and opened another one, #9.

I picked this one because of the blue speckled envelope paper. I knew when I held it in my hands it was another photograph, I really liked the way you turned an envelope inside out to wrap this little something.

I'm still knitting Jon's scarf, you can see it on the left. I proceeded to open the envelope:

I check out the back. It says,

"It's a big blue Spanish Sky, Lay on my back and watch the clouds roll by. I've got the time to wonder why, she left me. It's a slow, sad Spanish song, I knew the words but I sang them wrong. The one that I love has left and gone, without me."

~Chris Isaak

You underlined a few lines, as I think they really resonated with you.

I read them again.

Geez Steph, that is depressing.

But I do love clouds... they are wondrous. The way they form, come together and then dissipate. It is exactly like an intimate relationship isn't it?

I like your drawing on the inside of the envelope too. What was behind it?

Also, the date on the back of the photograph is from 1997.
Where is this from? Do you have lots of pictures of beautiful blue sky?

Would you believe I took this picture before I came home and opened this something?
It's ironic. I was feeling a little stumped creatively, without anything to blog about. Then I looked up and thought I would write about the Belgian sky...

The skies here are amazing, changing all the time:
(Actually, the above pic is from Rotterdam, not Belgium, but it shows the changing sky as I see it here.) One day it will be gray and rainy, cold and a little dreary.

Then the sun will peek out and you will hours of beautiful blue sky:

Antwerp

Also Antwerp

The skies are constantly changing and the weathers reciprocates. I am constantly changing. I can feel myself transforming, not physically, but mentally. I guess that's part of adapting to life far away. Maybe that was the source of my creative stump? I am learning to let myself go and become available to the changes that will come. It's exciting, but also a little unnerving at times. It was a tough week last week with a few cultural blips and bumps, but I survived and learned a few lessons a long the way.

I know more about the Belgian train system, a new Belgian town, am making friends and even have access to an English library. I am starting to look at boots in store windows and adapt to Belgian fashion, shop at specialty stores for meats, cheeses and fish. I think I will enroll in a language class next. It's a transformation... much like the season and the clouds.

Life is just rolling right along...

xoxo

LYMI