Wow....this place can ring the changes. For two weeks or so the ground has been covered in snow, a white carpet over the landscape and silver etchings on the leafless trees. Then...rain, and its all gone. In just moments the snow has disappeared. This land of Estonia seems to revel in "visual violence" , rapid dramatic changes that give you the feeling that you have just walked through a door into another world. We saw this in the explosion of spring with greener than green leaves leaping out of bare branches in just hours, in autumn as trees rushed to throw their now red and golden leaves onto the ground as an exotic carpet for our daily walk, and now in the middle of winter,  the white carpet of snow is laid out and rolled away repeatedly,  leaving you wondering what will be the view when next you open your eyes. As if to confirm this observation, looking out or lounge room window I see it is snowing again. The carpet layer never tires.

Friendship. As the days race by we cannot avoid the realisation that our year in Estonia is fast coming to and end. It amazes us that this time has gone so fast, aided, I guess, from the many different experiences that have packed themselves into this year. As the date for our return looms up we become increasingly conscious of having to say goodbye to so many friends and family here in Estonia. Of course, to some extent, this will be offset by the expectation of seeing you all, our family and friends, in Australia once again. In addition, this year in Estonia has coincided with the fiftieth year of our marraige. Five decades of friendship that has flourished in both the up's and down's of ordinary family life. Added to these things has been the absolute enjoyment and meaning that Helve and I have derived from the visits that some of our family, and some of you, our friends, have made with us here in Estonia this year. All these things have got me thinking...(oo ooh! maybe you had better skip this bit)   what is it about friendship that is so important, so deeply impacting on our lives?  What does friendship offer to us and what do we give in return. How do we value these friendship ties in comparison with other aspects of our lives and experience?  Maybe I am mistaken, but I think that if most of us were confronted with the choice of being surrounded by caring, interesting and faithful friends, or by a million dollar mansion and loneliness, we would chose friendship. What is it that compels us to put such high value on friendship?

 Cozy with friends

Not so cozy...but still with friends

May I tentatively make a suggestion that I have found helpful in living. It is not a dogma, an absolute or a rule, and may not be useful to you at all. But here it is anyway. I think that questions are much more important than answers. Maybe not in purely physical, technical and material things, but in the sphere of human experience, relationships, growth and understanding I think questions, rather than answers enable us to keep on searching, growing, finding, developing, changing, maturing, abandoning and moving on. In other words they kept on renewing us, keep us looking forward. Answers, on the other hand, are more like full stops. If I have the answer, then there is no more need to look, to wonder, to ask, to think. That's it! I learnt long ago that if you give people answers they become followers of 'your' way. If you give them questions they push ahead to discover their own particular path in life.  So.......I don't plan to give any answers to my questions on friendship. What I hope is that we all will stop and think about this, see where it takes us, see whether it impacts on our life style and priorities. Recently I read ( I cannot recall the book or the author, apologies ) a writer who suggested that a person is not really human unless they are part of a community. That seems to ring true to our experience, we seem to need each other to become ourselves. Whatever we discover as we think about friendship I think that we all intuitively know that friendship is vital to our lives. If this is so it also follows that we should value the maintenance of friendship as one of our highest, if not highest, priorities. It also follows that the loss of a friend is much more significant than the loss of your financial security, your house or any other material thing. ( I warned you!!!!)

By the way....it's still snowing outside. This winter in Estonia has be unusually mild. Just another aspect of the global warming impact,  as is the opposite in the north America continent. We have not had any temperatures below -13C, whereas it is common for temperatures -20C and below at this time of the winter. It remains to be seen what will happen in Feb. but long term forecasts are not favouring very cold temperatures this year. We have come to really enjoy this winter period. Perhaps it is the difference it presents from our Aussie weather and maybe the novelty will wear off in time. In many ways its nice to rug up and walk in the cold. Its comfy to sit in a warm cafe and have a coffee with a friend. I am sure we will miss some of these aspects of life in Tartu, and we do feel somewhat intimidated by the temperatures you are all experiencing in Melbourne and Sydney this year. We are in for a rapid re-aclimatisation when we return. I wrote a poem the other day to try and explain what a snow landscape is like and the feelings it elicits.

Here,
Silence descends
White. Pristine
Consuming all our
Noise. Time
Itself seemingly
Suspended between the Grey Ceiling and the
White
Carpet in this
Land

Võib olla                           ( Estonian....maybe )
Nature is Whispering:
Stop....
Listen...
Breathe again.
Soon enough the busy Sun will
Tear apart the Ceiling and
Silence will
Melt.


                   


Outside the white carpet is back. This evening we are going to visit an Estonian family who are bee keepers. Some of you will know we once kept bees in Australia. How different it is here to keep bees in this country of below zero temperatures. I am fascinated to hear their story and they too are interested in ours. Since our first meeting with them earlier this year they have become new friends and soon their daughter hopes to visit Australia. People....they are amazing, interesting, unique, inspiring, talented and welcoming. Give me a person any day before a cathedral or a bridge!
Till next time......enjoy your friends.....call someone you haven't seen for a while...we are missing you all.