On a recent visit to Saskatoon, Ted Ohlsen, a dear friend of The Emily Dahl Foundation, provided more delightful carvings for the foundation to give to others. When you first meet Ted Ohlsen, there are likely to be two things you notice about him. One: he’s blind, and two: he’s probably busy doing something. Ted shares his thoughts on life and passes on some of the treasures of mother nature that we often forget about while we are busy with life. This lovely little carving here is classic Ted Ohlsen and recently found a new home in Vernon, BC. The young man that received this gift knows Emily well and now he has this little treasure at his home to remember not only Emily, but to remember the purpose in life, which is to be happy. We all grow up so fast in this dream like experience we call life. We take this experience to be real, and often suffer in the wake. Investigation into the truth of the nature of all things will reveal your deeper self to be nothing but love. Ted Ohlsen reminds us all to wake up and look to nature to find the truth of who we really are, consciousness bliss.
It is remarkable that the carving ended up with the Kurt Cobain picture in the background. There could not be two more interesting chaps than Kurt Cobain and Ted Ohlsen. You just never know where and when a Ted Ohlsen carving will turn into another story, but they always do. They start with creation in the Boreal Forest and end up where? You just never know. At The Emily Dahl Foundation we admire both Ted Ohlsen and Kurt Cobain for their deeper thinking on the nature of reality. Here are a few of their best quotes: “Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.” - Kurt Cobain "Life is what you make it. Life is not made for you. That’s it.” - Ted Ohlsen “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.” - Kurt Cobain "I am happy when I spend time with people who accept me for who I am." - Ted Ohlsen “If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.” - Kurt Cobain “I think life ceases when it stops, when you really do not breathe any- more. I think then life is done. Before that, life demands from you that you do something good.” - Ted Ohlsen “I have met many minds able to store and translate a pregnantly large amount of information, yet they haven't an ounce of talent for wisdom or the appreciation of passion.” - Kurt Cobain “If you went to Walmart with a million dollars and asked to buy happiness, they would laugh at you. The wildlife in the North that we have is worth billions and billions of dollars, because it’s nowhere else. The lakes and rivers - the numbers of fish - that’s priceless. The Boreal Forest is the largest shopping centre in the world." - Ted Ohlsen “You can't buy happiness” - Kurt Cobain The Emily Dahl Foundation June 2024
