Update from August 2023 to May 2025

 The last time I wrote was August 2023 - two months after I became the Associate Director of Gammelgården Museum. Between then and now, I have become the Executive Director of the museum (since January 2024). 

These 21 months have been exciting, challenging, and rewarding. I've had opportunities to oversee the historic restoration of a 1930s building, revamp the way the museum presents exhibits, improve the way artifacts are stored, began the digitization of the museum's collection by using a collections management system that not only benefits the museum, but that the public can see on MNCollections.

We have had many major community events that have grown in size from a couple hundred of people in 2023 to over 1,000 people in 2024. Our Season Opening Day this year had over 960 people - up from about 250 last year. 

The number of staff and interns are increasing which enables us to accomplish even more. 

With all of the good, though, comes the loss of balance and free time. I have struggled with trying to find the things that I once enjoyed - photography, gardening, quilting, and having enough time to spend with my family. My goal is to get my life in better balance during the 2025 season. 

Below are some photos that I have taken recently. I've taken more photos on my camera which I have yet to download to my computer. There's not enough time it seems. 

At any rate, here are some photos that represent my life over the past year.

I have been photographing artifacts at the museum so we have a digital record of each one that staff and volunteers can use plus the public can see. Below is a courting candleholder. 

At the museum's Season Opening Day, we had farm animals from Little Blue's Traveling Zoo. This is Melvin. He's a Scottish Highland Cow. The stuffed cow is something that we bought for the museum as one of our mascots. This breed of cow is the only one that legally can be kept outdoors during the winter in Sweden. 

One of the things that is important to me is providing training opportunities for tour guides. Below is the meeting in April with our returning and new tour guides. It's in the classroom where the main exhibit is shown (which was still being installed at this point).

Scandia Fire & Rescue held a fire extinguisher training so tour guides and staff could get experience with using them. 

Here's another item in the museum's collection that I photographed. It is one of hundreds of Charlotte Weibull dolls in the collection. These are all handmade dolls, some representing different provinces in Sweden.

During January through April 2025, I was photographing and entering information about artwork and other artifacts into CollectiveAccess. This had never been done. Now, we have over 660 items in the collection that are in the database. This is just a fraction of what we have. I was told we had about 3,500 items. 

In doing this project (along with another co-worker), over 37% of the items entered were not accessioned prior to my start as the Associate Director/Executive Director - which means information about the item was never recorded. So, we have no idea how the piece was acquired or any history about it. 

In March, I drove to Kansas for an open-air museum conference which was informative and relevant to what I am doing now. One of the classes I enjoyed taking was about historic shoes. This is a sampling of shoes and tools that were used to make and repair them.

This photo shows how the soles of shoes were attached to the vamps/uppers - by pegs. These are all little wooden pegs that went around the perimeter of the shoe.

Another class I attended at the conference related to condiments used in the 1800s. 

During the conference, there was an opportunity to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum which was a fascinating museum. This is one of the pairs of shoes that were restored and are on display. During our visit, we had the opportunity to go behind the scenes to see the restoration and cold storage areas. They are still working on the hundreds of artifacts that are in cold storage. 

 

Part of the open-air museum conference was held at Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop in Olathe, Kansas. It's a nice facility with well-presented exhibits. I particularly enjoyed seeing the farm animals, including this sheep. 

 

I also had the opportunity to visit the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. Not having ever visited a Presidential Library, I didn't know what to expect. The exhibits were fascinating and I learned a tremendous amount while there. 

Back at the museum, I was purchasing items for the current exhibit, including this print of a watercolor by a Swedish artist. 

In March, Sophia and I took care of my grandnieces for a couple of weekends. We had some craft projects for them to work on which they enjoyed doing. 

We took them to the museum. I was surprised to hear they had never been to a museum, so this was a good experience for them to see what one was like. Maya enjoyed the wool processing exhibit. 

We taught the girls how to make pancakes. Maya learned how to crack an egg which she was proud about doing.

We played games with the girls as the dogs, Danny and Ellie, wanted to be a part of the action. 

We visit the St. Croix River. There was still ice on part of the river (look to the right of the photo). Surprisingly, there were people already fishing on the section with open water.

In February, I went to Karpeles Manuscript Library on my way to Grand Marais. I had never been to this museum and it was well worth the stop. There were documents and images that have been collected by a family that are being shared with the public. This one was from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Karpeles also had a display about historic telephones. This one was an unusual one.

In Grand Marais, I took a class about Swedish embroidery. I was impressed with this 3D installation that was done by various art/education instructors - each depicting a different craft or skill taught at North House.

My hotel room faced Lake Superior and one morning there was smoke coming off the water. It was beautiful.

During the embroidery class, we made pouches that could hold embroidery tools - scissors, needles, pins, and a small project. My project is on the far right - the purple one. 

One of the projects that I am happy about is the non-lending resource library that we created at the museum. There were literally hundreds of books that were never accessioned into the collection. If they are not historic or fragile, they were put in this library for the public to browse and read. Some of the books are in English and others in Swedish. 

I also created a Board and Card Game Library - something that is new to the museum and community. People can come to the museum to play a game. The goal is to get away from technology and do something fun with friends and/or family.

Here's another piece I purchased for the museum. It is over six feet tall and is all hand-felted. It's two birch trees which are significant to both the Ojibwe and Swedish immigrants who lived in this area. 

Winter always seems to offer stunning sunsets. 

This is Ellie with the girls at Christmas 2024. She is our newest dog after multiple and unexpected deaths of pets from 2022 through 2024 (Scooby - November 2022 from some type of weird bacterial/viral infection that got progressively worse; Aspen - December 2023 went in for surgery to remove three masses. When she was recovering from surgery, she was anxious and doing a lot of panting, and - to make a long story short - developed a twisted stomach which was too far along by the time we got her to an emergency hospital, and Cooper January 2024 from Hemangiosarcoma - a type of cancer that only dogs get. No one knew he had it - us or the vet).

On a more positive note, this is what the museum's second floor looked like at Christmas. This exhibit had lots of different mini-themes that showed what the holidays in Sweden look like. The tables are set for the Luciadagen breakfast that was served after the program in the Old Church. 

From August 2024 to March 2025, we had kitten - Juniper - who we rescued from being outdoors. She was by herself, tiny, and hungry. She lived with us and had an active and full life until the last week in March. She developed a neurological condition that would have severely impaired her life. Her condition appeared almost as if she had a stroke. The emergency vet said she would have had seizures for the rest of her life, be unable to walk steadily due to issues on her left side, etc. It was devastating. 

The girls and a couple of their friends doing the annual puzzle competition at the museum.

Sophia brought Olivia her birthday cake to celebrate her 22nd birthday.

Sophia helped serve food for a volunteer and member appreciation event at the museum in January 2025.

My sister and nephew were at the volunteer and member appreciation event. 

This was Juniper at Christmas 2024. She received gifts...just like everyone else did. She loved playing with the crumpled-up paper.

Danny was intrigued with the gifts at Christmas. His favorite gift was the one for him: dog treats!

Sophia helped at the coffee parties at the museum. I appreciated her help during the busy holiday season. 

Just a final photo of Olivia with Maya and Emma plus Melvin the Scottish Highland Cow who, interestingly, was afraid of the stuffed Scottish Highlight Cow. 

And...there we have it. An update from August 2023 to May 2025. Certainly this didn't include everything that happened, but it was a glimpse into this period of time. 

Outdoor Mom's Journal - May 2019

During our outdoor time this week we went...to the backyard to rescue a nest of baby bunnies that Cooper discovered.

Unfortunately, he got a couple of them. The remaining five bunnies we brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville since Sophia thought they appeared a bit dehydrated. (She pulled their skin a little and let it go. The skin went back slowly towards the bunnies' bodies indicating they were dehydrated.)

Sure enough, when we bought them in, they were dehydrated. However, there was milk in their stomachs so the mother was around.

They encouraged us to bring them back home since they would have a higher chance at survival. So we did. The girls put them back in the underground nest and covered the nest with a laundry basket and rock during the day.

Each day in the evening, we would remove the laundry basket and leave the nest open at night. The mother  would feed the babies once in the evening and once in the morning. In the morning, we would put the basket over the nest to protect them again.

When they were still very young and their eyes had not opened yet, the girls did check on them to make sure they were okay. Check out the tiny paw and ears of the bunny below.

Another bunny had cute little back paws. They were not nervous at this stage because they didn't know who we were or what we were doing. The fluid that the vet gave each bunny gave them the energy and electrolytes it needed.

We were so happy to see the bunnies growing during the month; and eventually getting brave and old enough to leave the nest. They have multiple places to hide and are very quick - which is an asset when there are four dogs living in the home.

The most inspiring thing we experienced was...asking for a "gift of service" for Mother's Day and receiving it. Sophia and Olivia planted flower container gardens by the driveway and entry way to the backyard (essentially our front door).

They are matching planters that belonged to my parents; and we've been planting flowers in them since we inherited them.

Paige cleaned the grill so I could make smoked barbecue ribs for dinner.

The girls also brought loads of compost to various holes and bare spots in the front- and backyards. They spread it out and then put grass seed on top.

This was  a huge timesaver for me so I could focus on other outdoor projects. We have about a month and a half before Sophia's graduation party...and there's a lot left to do.

Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)...how old are bunnies before their eyes open? 

We found out that baby rabbits, or kits, usually open their eyes about 10-12 days after birth. They are born blind, furless, and deaf. They typically start to grow fur after about three days.

In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting...a variety of things. We are removing the raised beds because some were damaged in the fire last year and others are getting worn out. They were made out of some type of heavy-duty outdoor fabric; and they only lasted a few growing seasons.

So, we are not planting any vegetables or herbs this year. There isn't enough sunlight where the gardens have been in the past and there isn't enough interest from everyone to do vegetable gardening.

What we are doing is working on the flower and hosta gardens that have been neglected over the past few years. There's a lot of weeding that we've been doing as well as planting some new perennials. I'm excited to see how the gardens will look during the summer.

I added nature journal pages...in my Nature Observer - A Guided Journal book. I am really enjoying this journal. I write down something I observed in nature on the calendar; set goals on the "Activity or Intention" page about a variety of things; write daily reflections about nature; and am including pictures from magazines of nature images.

At some point, I'll add some photos I've taken of the outdoors and birds to further personalize it. 

I am reading...nothing related to nature. I've been doing a lot to get ready for Sophia's graduation day (May 21st) and party (June 29th). 

I am dreaming about…when the pond in the pasture will go down. This is what it looked like on May 16th:

It was high enough for geese and ducks to land and swim around in it. It has been very high this year and was extremely challenging for the horses to access it. They were choosing to go through almost knee-high muck to get to the pasture.

So, the girls and I cut an opening in the fence at a higher elevation and created a new path for them to use. It is much better for them now.

A photo I would like to share...Sophia's graduation day was very windy in the afternoon, and then it ended up raining. So, we couldn't get any decent outdoor photos which was disappointing. The next day, we went to Jax Café and had lunch to celebrate her graduation. This is a family photo of us on the patio at Jax.

Spiritual Practices A to Z: Meaning

Spiritual Practices: Meaning

Enhances: Understanding

Balances/Counters: Cynicism, Shallowness

The Basic Practice

Meaning is a term that sums up spiritual life. Many people define spirituality as the search for purpose and meaning. This practice involves seeking and making.  But this is also a specific practice that can be learned, developed, and applied. It involves both seeking and making.

Seek meaning by looking for the big picture around all of your experiences. Look for patterns in the world and in your behavior. Make meanings by attaching symbols, stories, analogies, and metaphors to events and things. Learn more about how you can understand things whether that means taking a course, attending a lecture, or listening to a CD.

Why This Practice May Be For You

The universe is a friendly place, and everything in it has meaning and purpose. Nothing happens by chance. If we think nothing deserves to be taken seriously, then it is easy to regard what happens to us as insignificant and pointless. After all, what matters if the universe is characterized by random occurrences? On a personal level, this translates to the feeling that there is no direction to our lives.

If what you are doing doesn't seem important, it's time to work with the practice of meaning.

Quotes

Meaning does not come to us in finished form, ready-made; it must be found, created, received, constructed. We grow our way toward it.
— Ann Bedford Ulanov quoted in Dear Heart, Come Home by Joyce Rupp

We must remind ourselves that, though our lives are small and our acts seem insignificant, we are generative elements of this universe, and we create meaning with each act that we perform or fail to perform.
— Kent Nerburn in Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Insights from myth, dreams, and intuitions, from glimpses of an invisible reality, and from perennial human wisdom provide us with hints and guesses about the meaning of life and what we are here for. Prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action are the means through which we grow and find meaning.
— Jean Shinoda Bolen in Close to the Bone

Books

Ethical Wills - Putting Your Values on Paper by Barry K. Baines.

This book explores the questions that many people have: Have I fulfilled my purpose? What will I be remembered for? What kind of legacy have I passed along to my family and others?

The author is the Medical Director at Ucare, Minnesota, and Associate Medical Director of Hospice of the Twin Cities. He is also the CEO of The Legacy Center, an organization dedicated to preserving stories, values, and meaning for individuals, communities, and organizations.

I checked this book out from the library and was impressed with the usefulness and practical ideas for passing along one's personal values, beliefs, and advice to future generations.

The author believes that clarifying and communicating the meaning of our lives is not only important to our loved ones — it is a gift we owe ourselves. In the process of reflecting upon the past, learning about ourselves, pondering what we're willing to stand up for, facing our mortality, and writing down personal and family stories; we deepen and enrich our lives.

There are lots of exercises to help with the writing process and many examples of ethical wills written by people of all ages.

Because of this book, I have started on an ethical will to my daughters and started to refine my health care directive.

Film

Limbo, directed by John Sayles, is recommended for this spiritual practice.

Physicist Albert Einstein was once asked, "What's the most important question you can ask in life?" He replied, "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" In writer and director John Sayles's latest film, the open-ended finale gives you a chance to decide for yourself the answer to that poignant query.

The drama is set in the small town of Port Henry, Alaska, where tourism is the only business now that the timber mill and the salmon cannery have shut down. The two main characters are Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn), a moody handyman who is drenched in guilt over his role in the death of two people in a disaster aboard his boat, and Donna De Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a lounge singer who has dated a string of losers. He asks her and her troubled daughter Noelle (Vanessa Martinez) to join him on an outing on his boat. But some nasty business with his half-brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko) strands the three of them on a deserted island in the wilds of Alaska.

This limbo they inhabit is a place of confinement, where they linger with the regrets of the life they've known and the very real possibility of death. They find a little shelter and forage for food in the woods and sea. But they each know that the chances of their being rescued are quite slim. This grim situation enables them to deal with the unfinished emotional business of their lives. Hobbled by fear, they inch their way toward the healing power of love, forgiveness, and mutual caring.

I checked out the movie from the library, but didn't have time to watch it. It seems like by the time that I have a block of time to watch a movie I am too tired to enjoy it. Perhaps some day I can circle back and watch this movie.

Music

Austrian composer Gustav Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) in 1908 - 1909 shortly after the death of his favorite daughter from scarlet fever and after he was diagnosed with a debilitating heart condition.

Consisting of six movements, the composition is based on Chinese poems about loneliness, youth, beauty, renewal, and death. This powerful yet supremely poignant music covers a wide range of emotions as the composer reaches for meaning in the face of death.

In the final section, "The Farewell," words added by Mahler reveal that he has found it: "The dear earth everywhere blossoms in spring and grows green again. Everywhere and eternally the distance shines bright and blue. Eternally."

This CD was available at the library. I listened to the beginning of it, but didn't listen to the whole thing. It's beautiful music, but I wasn't in the right place mentally to listen and enjoy it. These past few months have felt rushed and I haven't put the effort (like I should) into fully exploring this spiritual practice.

Art

George Segal's white plaster sculptures are composed of figures of human beings involved in mundane activities. "People have attitudes locked up in their bodies and you have to catch them," the artist wrote. This is his quest for meaning and our chance to make a spiritual reading of his art.

Look at Bus Riders in which Segal presents four figures caught in a moment of time. What does their body language reveal about their personalities and characters? And what does the sculpture as a whole say about our times?

As I look at the sculpture, I see four people so close to one another yet in their own worlds. They look like they each have their minds and attention focused on other things - either out the window of the bus or internally.

In some respects, I see isolation and loneliness in this grouping of four people. No one is engaged in conversation or actively wanting to connect or reach out to others. It's not much different than life nowadays with people so connected to their devices rather than one another.

Daily Cue, Reminder, Vow, Blessing

• Reading a new book is a cue for me to participate in the great adventure of finding meaning.

I read "The Priority List - A Teacher's Final Quest to Discover Life's Greatest Lessons" by David Menasche. This was an interesting book in concept. However, I was hoping to read more about the interactions with the teacher's students from the past and his impact on their lives.

• When I hear a soul-stirring lecture, I am reminded of my obligation to make meaning from my experiences.

This hasn't happened to me recently.

• When I leave a theater after seeing a movie, I vow to ponder its meanings slowly and seriously.

Haven't gone to see a movie recently either.

Practice of the Day

Today's headlines, viewed with the right consciousness, can be seen as a living alphabet through which humanity comes to know itself and God. A deeper meaning is revealed.
— Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson in Spiritual Politics

To Practice This Thought: Scan the headlines in today's newspaper. What do they tell you about yourself, your world, and God?

I'm not sure what paper to read to get a positive outlook and meaning on humanity. If anything, the papers are rather depressing and frightening at this point in time. There is so much negativity, hatred, terrorism, and fear in the world. Each year seems to get more frightening than the previous year.

Some of the headlines from yesterday's main section of the paper:
- Cohen sent to prison for 3 years
- Police call officer shortage a "crisis"
- As trade war drags, soybeans sit in bins
- 5 convicted in decade of trafficking
- U.S. diplomats who fell ill in Cuba had injured ears
- Scandal-tainted cardinals out
- Countries see little progress at climate talks
- Island nations, threatened by rising seas, push for action

The Minnesota news isn't much better:
- New ideas for cops on rape cases
- To catch a porch package thief
- In Duluth, U finalist confronts concerns
- Bad valve at refinery led to blast
- Met Council OKs barriers to protect metro  Transit bus drivers

What these headlines tell me about myself is that I live by values that are vastly different than the ones who are mentioned in these stories. As I read these titles, there isn't one that is positive. The world is changing to something I no longer recognize or, in some ways, feel comfortable being around.

How different life was like 30,40, 50 years ago. I can't even imagine how much different life was like 100 years ago. In the greater scheme of life and the world, that's not a long time. Yet in that short timeframe, human nature and the world has changed greatly.

Spiritual Exercises

Before you pick up a new book or magazine, or as you sit down to watch a video or listen to some music, pause and ask Spirit to open your heart, mind, and soul through the spiritual practice of meaning. Call in wisdom. Later, before leaving this learning experience, say a blessing for the author or the artist to convey your thanks for his or her contribution to your life.

SPECIAL PROJECT: Make your own Book of Meaning. In a blank notebook, copy quotes that speak to your understanding of yourself, the world, and God. Paste in photographs that touch your soul, adding captions about what the image says to you. Get in the habit of regularly writing in your book "spiritual readings" of your relationships, work, body, hobbies, and current events.

I have something like this - a book of quotes. It's a positive, uplifting book to read. I do not have photographs in it. In some ways, my nature journal - with writing, photos, and images from magazines is like that.

It would be good to get in a regular habit of writing and documenting my life. Perhaps in 2019.

Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat contains more than 650 short excerpts, collected from a wide variety of sources, that reveal a spiritual perspective on everyday life. Reading them will be particularly helpful training sessions for this special project in making meanings.

I checked this book out of the library. The book is organized by topic (e.g., creativity, hope, nature, animals) and there are excerpts from books and other resources. I particularly liked the chapters I noted as well as one on service.

Journal Exercises

• At one time or another, we all have to ask whether spiritual meaning is found in security or risk, certainty or doubt. In your journal, make a list of the places where you have looked for meaning. Make a second list of the places where you haven't looked. Write the reasons why you have looked where you have and not looked elsewhere.

Discussion Questions, Storytelling, Sharing

• Describe a recent situation where you consciously asked yourself, what is the meaning of this? What did you learn?

• What elements of contemporary culture serve as blocks or obstacles to your interest in the spiritual practice of meaning? How do you deal with them?

Household, Group, and Community Projects

• Create a mural of proverbs in your home. These brief sayings carry wisdom from the past and different cultures. Many also contain spiritual advice such as "Silence is golden." Check the library for collections of proverbs.

I checked out the book The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by J.A. Simpson. It was interesting to see how many proverbs my parents used when I was growing up, and ones that I still use today.

These are some of the proverbs that I remember hearing or that I think are good advice:

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
A stitch in time saves nine.
A watched pot never boils.
A woman’s work is never done.
A word to the wise is enough.
After a storm comes a calm.
All that glitters is not gold.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All’s fair in love and war.
All’s well that ends well.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
An apple never falls far from the tree
Appearances are deceptive
April showers bring May flowers.
As you make your bed, so you must lie upon it.
Beauty is only skin deep.
Beggars can’t be choosers
Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.
Better late than never.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Blood is thicker than water.
Business before pleasure.

If you notice - these are only ones that begin with the letters A and B. There are many more starting with the letters C-Y (there are none that start with Z).

• Make a household commitment to each learn at least one new thing every week. Consider these sources of meanings: lectures at libraries, conference centers, bookstores; encyclopedias and other reference books; television documentaries. Report on the most interesting things you are learning during one of your meals together.

We do learn something new each week - sometimes almost every day. At this stage of our life, with both Sophia and Olivia in high school, we are always reading something for one of the girls' classes. Talking with others invariably leads to learning new things as well. There's so many opportunities to learn something new each day.

• Sharing meanings within a group context is also a rewarding activity. Here are some "meaning" discussion starters: What ritual, holiday, or possession means the most to you? What a landscape or place has special meaning for you. Recall a meaningful moment from childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, elderhood. When have you found meaning in suffering? Have you ever felt deprived of meaning?

All these answers to these questions would be far too long for a post. These are better written about in my journal.

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The ideas in this post are from Spirituality and Practice.