Of Oslo, with love

Even though i have been with my job now for more than four (!) years, it still amazes me how it makes me go around the world, allows me to meet new people of change, regather with friends, discover new places, and as a result of it all feel so connected. In my research i am concerned with investigating the causes and consequences of armed violence, examining the conditions under which civilians are most vulnerable. Deep inside i feel and know that the main root of our suffering is our ignorance of oneness. Engaging with each other we have become used to see what makes us different. We oversee what we have in common, what unites us, what makes us all just human in the first place.

You are a Muslim, i am a Christ. We forget we share the same love and praise for our god. You are Serbian, i am Albanian. We miss we are both fathers of beautiful sons we want to protect from harm. My skin is pale, your skin is dark. We both need to take good care of our precious bodies. You are an immigrant, i am a national. We are both scared of losing our job. You are the enemy, i am a savior. You and i both call this country home. You are this and i am that, and still we share the same blue planet and have an interest to preserve it.

I was excited to come back to the north of Europe for a new project and as a welcome side-effect present my academic work at the place i humbly visited as a mere course participant just two years ago. 

Life gets busy when a dissertation wants to be completed and work is on the table. All of it is very exciting and i get swept away with it many many times. So much love is in the air. Just at the thought of what is to come once i get this part done makes me jump with joy and tear my eyes wide open with anticipation. It's the connections that i enjoy the most. When i chat with the primary school teacher on the airway north. When office mates arrive for another day of work. When i exchange email with my colleagues in Belgrade, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Mannheim, and get the data rolling. When my friend and i meet at the farm on Sundays and get the raised beds filled with seeds to flourish. When friends check in from around the world. When my sweetest Oslo friend cooks up a feast for me. When facetime rings and it is you who draws a smile between my lips.

Sometimes i feel like a flower and my petals keep growing longer and longer to embrace this world. There is a lot of peace, too. And i just developed a snapseed passion.