Happy 2014!

I like Christmas in many ways, it is a very special time for me and at the same time there is a lot of nostalgia and some sadness about it. Then, I am relived and happy that it is over, this is how I feel right now. Free to do normal things and look forward to a promise of the 2014.

New year, new resolutions, new plans. New beginning. Many like it and so do I. The trick is to live up to the resolutions given in this period of New Year energy. Even if many of my resolutions and goals seem to be perennial, I will still make them and, maybe naively,  believe that  I will make it all happen this time. 

A friend asked a New Year related question pointing to elegance. I liked it and I am happy to call this year My Year of Elegance. Elegance may mean many things. I think that it should be based on simplicity, restrain and truth. So I want all aspect of my life to be elegant. My behaviour and coaching, my writing and reading, my eating and clothing, my plans and promises... The list is much longer.

Christmas Eve Polish style Wigilia

Christmas Eve Polish style Wigilia

(Polish pronunciation: [viˈɡilja])

Here I go again. It will be about Poland. As Christmas is coming my thoughts go back to Poland more often than normally. It all links to old days which left their stamp on me. I like best my memories related to Wigilia.

For Poles, wherever they are, the most beloved and beautiful of all traditional festivities is that of Christmas Eve. It is then that the Wigilia, or Christmas Eve Dinner is served. It is a solemnly celebrated occasion and arouses deep feelings of kinship among family members.

For days in advance, Poles prepare the traditional foods and everyone anxiously awaits the moment when the first star, known as the Gwiazdka, appears in the eastern sky. For that is when the feast to commemorate the birth of the Christ Child begins.

There is always a thin layer of hay under the white tablecloth in memory of the Godchild in the manger (no idea where I could find hay in Sydney, now that I missed my lawn mowing opportunity). Before sitting down at the table, everyone breaks the traditional wafer (Oplatek) and exchanges good wishes for health, wealth and happiness in the New Year. This is such a deeply moving moment that often tears of love and joy are evoked from the family members who are breaking this symbolic bread. The Oplatek is a thin, unleavened wafer similar to the altar bread in the Roman Catholic Church. It is stamped with the figures of the Godchild, the blessed Mary, and the holy angels. The wafer is known as the bread of love and is often sent by mail to the absent members of the family. This is a beautiful form of symbolic sharing.

The dinner itself differs from other evening meals in that the number of courses is fixed at seven, nine or twelve. According to myth, in no case must there be an odd number of people at the table, otherwise it is said that some of the feasters would not live to see another Christmas. A lit candles placed in the windows symbolise the hope that the Godchild, in the form of a stranger, may come to share the Wigilia and an extra place is set at the table for the unexpected guest. This belief stems from the ancient Polish adage, "A guest at home is God at home."

The Wigilia is a meatless meal, no doubt the result of a long-time Church mandate that a strict fast and abstinence be observed on this day before Christmas. Although the Church laws have been revised and permit meat to be eaten on this day, my Wigilia  meal remains meatless. Items that would normally be included in a traditional Wigilia menu include mushroom soup or borscht, boiled potatoes, pickled herring (sledzie), fried fish, pierogi, beans and sauerkraut, a dried fruit compote, assorted pastries, nuts and candies.

After the meal the members of the family sing Polish Christmas Carols called koledy while the children wait impatiently around the Christmas tree (choinka) for the gifts to be exchanged.

Christmas tree in a Polish home

My last year’s Wigilia was very traditional and prepared jointly with my Australian friends. There are various opinions how many dishes should be served at Wigilia.   I adopted the versions of 12 apostles, 12 months in the year so there were 12 dishes. It was definitely an indecent  way of overeating.

Cold dishes

1.      Herring with onion in oil – Vodka – Żubrówka

2.      White fish in aspic

3.     Vegetable and potatoes  salad

Warm dishes

4.      Borscht

5.      Pierogi (Polish ravioli) with sauerkraut and mushrooms

6.      Sauerkraut with split pea and mushrooms

7.      Poached Salmon

8.      Baked Potatoes

9.      Vegetables with Polish dressing of bread crumbs and butter

Deserts

10.  Piernik – Spice/Ginger cake

11.  Makowiec - Poppy seed cake

12.  Dry fruit and spices compote 

Returning to blogging

I have had a long break in writing. When I look for excuses, I find some.

My readers had problems to leave their comments. I tried to change the situation but for a long while to no avail. I believe that it is now corrected but I am not sure if my new solution is not dependent on the technical internet setup of the reader.

Then I wanted to concentrate on my internet presence as a career transition coach. I considered blogging as a time consuming interruption in what is most important to me – coaching as an ability to help others to live better, happier, more fulfilling lives.

There was also another, perhaps the most important reason for not writing. I came back home to Sydney and my Polish inspirations disappeared. I still am not certain what I will be “observing” now. I feel like I need a theme. I had not intended to write about Poland when I started blogging but as I found myself in Poland and friends showed some interest in the country I started to see things I had not been aware of earlier and I wrote about them.

For years I considered myself 100% Australian, ignoring what I have been recently reminded of – my heavy foreign accent. The accent has become more pronounced after my sojourns in Poland. At the same time staying in Poland for extended periods of time made me re-discover the beauty and character of my home country.

I am reading Diaries of Judy Cassab. Famous Australian painter of Hungarian background. She writes about herself and migrants in general: “Without the familiar background no one is quite themselves, not in the eyes of the other or in their own. If one rebels too strongly one destroys one’s soul. If one gives in, one stops living. Is there a solution at all?”

This sounds very dramatic to me but still, I recognise some of my dilemmas in what she writes.

So what I intend to write about, what will be objects of my observations and musing? Not sure yet.

However, I promise myself to blog regularly from now on. I may find my theme in time.

Walesa - Man of Hope

Most of the world knows that Lech Walesa had a special role in turning over communism in Europe. I like to think that the demise of communism in all Eastern Block countries started from his heroic jump over the Gdansk shipyard fence. I am not going to write about Polish history of the 1980ies. I was not even in Poland then. I left the country 15 years earlier and all events of the times were as difficult to understand for me as for any other Australian. I went back to Poland in 2004. It was the day of Poland becoming a part European Union. One may say that I left a communistic country and returned to a true European one. It was a huge gap to fill in with the knowledge of the events and political and social transformation of Poland. I have not closed the gap yet and perhaps never will close it properly. When I came back to Poland I came to live in Gdansk, Walesa’s town. The town where most of the transformation events took place.







From my place I could see the cranes of the Gdansk shipyard. I did not like them at first, they are not that beautiful after all. I always liked old churches, castles and palaces for their beauty. Shipyard cranes? No, this was not what I would consider of any interest to me. But, this has changed with time and when I pass them now my heart jumps a bit. Jumps with gratitude and admiration for all the people who worked, fought there and even died. And this gratitude is directed to Lech Walesa above all others.
 
Walesa is recognised in the world and his Nobel price considered as well deserved. Not so in Poland. His position and reputation is not that of a hero. He is despised by big percentage of Poles and considered an enemy #1 by the current Solidarity. The same Solidarity Union he made famous in the world and the force he lead through the difficult days of strikes, deadly fights with militia, negotiations with the communistic government and finally to the victory. These days, at August anniversaries of Solidarity, he is a lonely man, coming early in the morning to lay flowers at the Three Crosses of Fallen Shipyard Workers. He would be abused if he tried to join official celebrations later on in the day. Lech Walesa co-founder and the first chairman of the “S” - Solidarity is now seen as the enemy of shipyard workers by a big percentage of Poles.

Three Crosses Monument in front of the main entrance to the Gdansk Shipyard

I still wonder how it is possible to ignore his past and twist facts around. Of course he is not a saint and he is very outspoken when expressing his views. His criticism of people and events, he does not approve of, is violent and his choice of words unmercifully hurtful. He has raffled many fathers of politicians with different views to his own. He is also an easy target to criticise as he is not a cultured man. He makes many, sometimes funny, mistakes in his speeches and interviews. But he is not a shy man and he voices his opinions loudly and provocatively. Having a week spot for him, even I find him at times embarrassing. But he is still my imperfect hero.
Walesa. Man of Hope a new film directed by Andrzej Wajda opened in Poland in September. I would very much like to see it and hope it will be screened in Australia some day or I must see it when in Poland. The film has been selected as an Oscar candidate for the best foreign-language film. I will keep my fingers crossed even if I do not give the film great chances. However The Guardian review is positive.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/11/walesa-london-film-festival-review-nobel-peace-prize

After a long break

I have been neglecting my blog very badly. There are some excuses I could make to feel better. One of them is technical problems I am not able to solve in spite of trying many different approaches. The long standing problem concerns some readers not being able to write comments to my posts. For me a big part of blogging fun and value is to exchange comments with those who are interested in what I write and what could be a common interest. Since I do not have any more ideas what could be changed or done to solve the problem I am considering switching to Wordpress. I know that this is a rather dramatic solution and I feel defeated by technology but this seems to be least time consuming solution.

Being in Australia I feel an Australian again and Polish subjects are not that close to my heart at the moment. For some time, however, I thought of writing about Lech Walesa. When leaving Poland from the airport named after the man and seeing his huge picture taking the whole wall I felt deep gratitude for him. In my opinion, he changed the history of Poland. I plan that my next post will be about Walesa.

Finding my feet

I have been back in Sydney four days. This was not such a joyous return as I imagined earlier. Not being able to use my right hand has a lot to do with my current mood. I am managing better and better but I am still very much restricted. Immobilised right wrist slows down all that I do and makes it difficult to keep negative thoughts away.

Paul Blythe in the recent post of his blog (beinginspiring.net) says “we need to be deliberate about the quality of our thoughts”. I am afraid that I need to work in this area a lot harder than I have done to improve quality of my thoughts. By the way, I find Paul’s blog really inspiring as its name indicates.

At the same time the Sydney weather is fantastic and maybe my luck will change soon so this is time to make happy plans for my Sydney life. Catching up with friends, re-establishing myself at home and making it my place again, making plans for home improvements, reading favourite books, progressing with my coaching plans, learning new things, this is all happy and uplifting. And this is what I will focus on.

Coming Home

It has been a while since I placed my last post. I guess I felt sorry for myself and was nursing my broken wrist plus elbow. I am still not back to normal but I discovered yesterday that I can use my right hand while working on my computer.This is worth celebrating with a short post.

My sojourn in Gdańsk will finish in few hours. I am going back to Sydney tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to going home. Very much really. As my friend Virginia says, another New Beginning. And this always brings new promises, new plans, fun and new hopes. Going back and see my friends is always a very good thing. There will be many occasions to catch up, have many meals together, long talks, long walks and healthy life style.

I planned to write about chestnut trees while in Poland. About flowering with their cream candelabras in Polish HSC exams time and dropping their rusty colour fruits down the parks alleys when students go back to school in September. Ach, this is a Polish romantic waking up in me... As it is, I will perhaps write about Polish health system which proved to be a big challenge to me and dampened my patriotic enthusiasm a bit. I guess my view on one of my two homelands gained a better balance and perspective