Norway is high mountains and deep fjords. It is plains and coastal landscapes, islands and islets. It is lush fields and gentle heaths. It is dark winter days and bright summer nights. It is both salty and sweet, dried fish and fermented trout, mutton stew and cured lamb ribs. But Norway is, above all, people. Norwegians are people from Northern Norway, Central Norway, Southern Norway—and people from all the other regions. Norwegians have also immigrated from Afghanistan, P

There are men who spend what feels like forever inside one inch of sky. I met one of them. He was restoring the ceiling of an old church in a nearby town. The church was no longer used for worship, and they were turning it into a music hall. He worked lying on a scaffold, with his face only forty centimetres from the plaster. A very fine brush. A magnifying glass. A lamp that was too hot. He knew that blue better than anyone else. He knew it came from a stone brought from Afg

There is a moment when the boat pulls away from the harbor. The sound of the rope slipping into the water, the cry of the seagulls, the houses slowly drifting away. Staying on the shore may always seem safer. No waves, no storms. But that is not where things happen, the great, life-changing things. There is no need to wait for the wind to be perfect before setting sail. Sometimes you set off anyway, trembling a little, but with a fire in your heart. It is out there, between o

Even if there is only a 1% chance, if this is truly what you want, keep going. Fight for it. Solutions will come.