Travels of the Mind

Flower Window by Carl Larsson

There are some places you don't even need to imagine to visit in your mind. The paintings of Carl Larsson have become some of my favorites over the last year. All the scenes are very Scandinavian domestic - clean and homey and gentle. You get the feeling that all the people are industrious and efficient but cheerful and gracious, too. I like, too, that a lot of the paintings feature knitting somewhere, like a young girl or mother has set it down to go off and tend the soup pot or check on a sleeping child. We could do a lot worse than live in this quiet world for a little while.