Day 19 to 26: Soul searching in Olso

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Soul Searching in Olso
I'm on a quest to find community in Olso and the process has been an adventure. The winner of the week was the Stitch and Bitch club. I finally found it!!! Stitch and Bitch is an international knitting group for hip women who are obsessed with making their own styln' clothes. In part, it's about reshaping the image of knitters and making it cool. The Oslo group has 10-20 members who meet one night a week at a restaurant to eat, talk, work on knitting projects, share tips, and get to know each other. One girl was so fast, she was finishing an entire sweater after just one week. It was exciting to try out my Norwegian and they were very forgiving as muddled my way through sentences. And, I can't wait to get started on mittens or hats.

Another night I tried the Rinzai Zen Center, which felt inviting. This small and charming group of practitioners meet on the top floor of a building over on the east side of town. Zen rituals are always rather bemusing. Over the years, I've tried at least 6 different styles or schools of meditation. Even though I don't fully understand the meaning behind Rinzai chanting and bowing, it feels comforting and familiar. There are a few funny things about it. Like the San Francisco Zen Center, it attracts people without Japanese heritage. They wear traditional Japanese robes and follow the prescribed rules to the T, but non of them were raised in this tradition. And, the ritual itself is amusing and involves chanting pages of Japanese characters, bowing, walking slowly around the room in a single file line, meditating three times for about 25 minutes each, and drinking tea. The lack of explanation made it even more entertaining. At each point, I had no idea what would happen next. Part of the beauty of Zen is that it doesn't have to have meaning. The art and practice of meditation can be appreciated on its own, without delving into the murky waters of religion, and folklore. Objectively, it makes sense. By relaxing, calming, and focusing the mind is strengthened. I think of it as a mind game, an athletic workout for neurons. Like running, it can be a struggle to get going and a challenge to keep pace, but once you hit your stride, every moment is worth it.

I also tried a yoga class that I found online, offered at the Art of Living Foundation near Akershus Festning. But, it turned out to be an exclusive class for advanced students, so I left after the warm up. I should read the fine print more carefully.