3 generations ago, a group of friends decided to purchase all of the land on a small island called Sandø, which is very close to Tjøme on the Oslo fjord. The Island is owned by the families of the friends who originally bought it, and Liev is one of the members of one of those families.
Liev has a daughter named Eva, and the two of them spend their summers together at Sandø, inviting friends to join them for a week or weekend at a time.
One of these friends is Benni, who was invited to spend the last week with Eva at Sandø. When Benni realized that I would be so close to Sandø during my wwoofing experience (I was at Tjøme), she suggested that I come visit. At the last minute, I decided to delay my trip to the west by one day, and I went with Benni to Sandø, with plans to return the next day.
As Benni was ferrying me to the island with her friend Gunnar, she told me that she has never left Sandø on the day she was planning to leave.
Gunnar nodded in agreement, "Often, I'll come down for the weekend, and I plan to leave on Sunday night... usually I leave on Monday morning, though."
Even upon breathing the air at Sandø, I understood what they were talking about. In many ways, it reminds me of Bonnie and Karim's home in Palo Alto: no one in a hurry, everyone helping with dinner... from catching the fishes to washing the dishes, Sandø is beautiful.
Four days later, I was finally on a bus, headed west with Ludvik. He had needed to stay in Oslo to finalize an apartment deal, so it was actually him who postponed the trip the extra 3 days, days that became some of the most beautiful days of my life.
We went to his farm in the west, and it was beautiful. While there, I wrote and wrote and wrote, and it felt so wonderful to write, so I kept writing.
And now I am back in Oslo, staying with Eva and Benni, and tomorrow going to Alix's for my last night in Norway. I have really loved being here. I have really really loved being here.
2 comments:
beautiful picture of the stone
Good words.
Post a Comment