I brought an envelope of creative play prompts with me to Finland. For moments when the writing doesn’t come easily. And it hasn’t. But procrastination definitely has. So today after a short yoga session, and some journaling – instead of staring at my laptop for the next 3 hours, I chose a prompt. It said – listen to the wind and nature sounds for five minutes. And so I opened the windows. Before I could even properly document it, the wind physically took the prompt away, and blew it behind the radiator. And that is where it will live for the remainder of its days – until it turns into dust. To be permanently part of this residence – impossible to get rid of, as if it’s a piece of glitter. Someone else may stay here three months from now and never know there is a tiny creative instruction tucked behind the heat.
The wind and birdsong has become a part of my daily aural surroundings, as well as the whisps of cars driving past, and the occasional of the rumblings and clanging of the ferry from down the street. The tap water hums slightly. Almost like it’s enjoying the work it’s doing.
So far on this trip there is a fairly famous work of guitar music by the composer R. Murray Schafer that has stuck to me. “Le Cri de Merlin”, It was written for classical guitar and recording of sounds of your environment (whatever that may be). It’s a complicated work in the best way. He treats your environment as the soundtrack to your life. So that may actually be birdsong, but it also might be ambulance sirens, or shouting, or jackhammering, or applause. Is it noise or music. That would be up to your own interpretation. And silence. Silence is part of this soundtrack as well.
There is so much space here. My residence is practically monastic, The loudest sound is the voice in my head. I am trying to quiet it. And today’s prompt helped me to hear that there are other things to pay attention to. Sounds that will inspire, when the negativity that my own voice is spouting overwhelms me.
This part of the world (Korpo Finland) on 2:48 pm, Sunday October 4, 2026 sounds like wind blowing high through the birch trees. Something small rustling in the leaves (perhaps a field mouse). The silence of the pine trees. A small bird whistling. A car approaching and then boarding the ferry. The boiling of the water for my afternoon pot of tea. And the sound of my fingers tapping against this keyboard.
What sounds are entering your landscape wherever you are?
Here is a recording of Norbert Kraft playing the 5th movement of Le Cri de Merlin. You will have to listen very closely to hear the soundtrack to which he plays against.
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