Reflections on Growth, Reaping and Sowing

Life in Skånevik feels full right now. Lavender blooms, apple trees are heavy with fruit, and I return from daily hikes with chanterelles in my pocket. The light has shifted, the endless summer glow is gone, and the nights are dark again, carrying a hint of fall.

I can hear the buzz of tractors outside, and a few evenings have been cool enough for a fire.

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Milestones + Life in Limbo

This season brings milestones of my own. On August 27, I’ll turn 46, and September marks four years since my leap from full-time U.S. life. In August and September of 2021, after seven months of preparing and planning, I sold my car, packed my big red suitcase, bike, yoga mat, and guitar, and boarded a flight.

Those last weeks were a blur of contrasts: spending time with friends and family, catching as many concerts and sporting events as I could, closing out a 20-year career, and racing through every medical appointment I could schedule as the end of my health coverage loomed. After downsizing by about 80%, I was also packing and securing what remained of my possessions into storage at my cabin, filling the local free library with books, while creating space to read, laugh, pause, breathe, and notice in the midst of it all.

That choice continues to shape me in ways I both expected and never could have imagined.

There's nothing like the view from the cheap seats

Leaving a (nearly) empty apartment after 13 years in the best neighborhood in Madison

Storage unit at my cabin

From my camera roll during this time

Madison > Chicago

Chicago hotel room selfie

It’s also been one year since I submitted my residency application, and 15 consecutive months outside the U.S. The waiting for a decision, likely until spring, carries its costs in missing birthdays, weddings, funerals, and everyday life back in the Midwest. I’m committed to building a future here, yet I left behind a great life surrounded by people I love, and I am not sure what that will look like moving forward. Living stretched between two places has been a challenge.

And still, this in-between chapter has offered unexpected gifts. Part-time remote work gives me stability, growth, and flexibility. With a nine-hour time difference from the U.S. west coast, where my employer is based, I work evenings here and spend my days hiking, reading, and exploring, sometimes close to home and sometimes in new corners of Norway. Work serves as an anchor that keeps me rooted in the present, even as the future remains uncertain.

I’m reminded that growth takes place not only in the sowing, but also in the waiting.

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Home Again and Feeling Right

Boarding the ferry from Bergen to Skånevik on August 5

After two months in Bergen, I returned to Skånevik in early August, stopping briefly in Haugesund, which served as the perfect transitional pause between the city and the village.

Even so, I immediately felt the shift, leaving Bergen’s faster pace for the slower, quieter rhythm of this village of fewer than 1,000 inhabitants that I have grown to love. Stepping off the ferry, bags in hand, I spotted a local friend who insisted on giving me a ride home. Later, on my walk to the one and only grocery store, I was greeted by more familiar faces (including the shop manager, who I must add has seen Bruce Springsteen in concert 88 times).

I am home again and feeling right.

Since returning from Bergen, I have welcomed guests from The Netherlands, a friend from Switzerland, and a couple and their dog from Narvik. Each visitor adds a new thread to this growing tapestry of connections and helps keep me grounded. The loft is open again for next year, and one of the unexpected joys of hosting has been sharing recommendations and swapping stories with travelers who pass through this corner of Norway.

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Cross-Atlantic Connections

This summer, a connection from my hometown led to a new friendship in Norway.

When I was growing up in the farming community of Retreat, Wisconsin, there was one small store run by a man named Chet, who sold basic grocery items. It was an easy walk from my house, and I went there often. In 2020, after I had bought my cabin nearby, I drove past the property and noticed some activity. The store had long since closed, Chet had passed, and weeds had overtaken the lot. Curious, I stopped and met Chet’s grandson, who had inherited the land and was cleaning it up. He shared stories of his global aid work, and we kept in touch, connecting whenever I was back in the area and exchanging emails.

When I mentioned I would be in Bergen for the summer, he encouraged me to reach out to his Norwegian friend who lives just outside the city. They had met on a project in Nepal and had remained friends over the years.

Early this summer, I met her for coffee in Bergen and we talked for hours, sharing stories of travel, family, and life in between, and sent a photo to our mutual friend back in Retreat. Since then, we have spent more time together, including a visit to her home outside Bergen.

I treasure this new connection and the small-world story it represents.

Crossings200

Our view of the Restauration replica from the ship Amanda af Egersund, before its departure from Stavanger to New York. The Amanda was one of a small fleet of ships that accompanied the replica out of the harbor.

I had the honor of attending Crossings200 in Stavanger in early July, a celebration marking 200 years since the first organized group of Norwegians set sail from there to North America. My dear friend Dee from Madison invited me to join her for the event. At 81, she continues to inspire me with her passion, wisdom, and sense of adventure (and neither of us can pass a record store without peering in).

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I will never forget, and I am so grateful for our enduring friendship.

I continue to make updates to this page if you are interested in learning more and tracking the replica ship’s journey to New York, with its scheduled arrival on October 9.

Norway-based food cart opening in Wisconsin

Odda, Norway

Voss, Norway

Buying Pota Madre in Voss

***triggering content***

'Fucking good potato"

Pota Madre, a food cart with several locations here on Norway’s west coast, opens its first U.S. location in Stoughton, Wisconsin, in early September. If you are in the area, consider supporting them. It is a fun little bridge between here and there that I have enjoyed following. Keep an eye on their IG for updates.

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Looking Ahead

Geilo | November 2023

For the next few months, I’ll be regrounding in Skånevik, with house- and pet-sitting in Son (south of Oslo) and a return to Bergen on the horizon in November.

I also hope to visit Hallingdal, especially Geilo and Ål, to spend time with friends. Returning to these places and people I’ve connected with over the years always brings comfort and perspective.

Last year, I celebrated my birthday in Ål, a place I first visited in 2016 and that now feels like home whenever I return. The days were filled with sauna time, hiking, berry picking, and a feast of Russian dishes, waffles, and apple pie, shared with a Norwegian friend of nearly ten years and a new Russian friend whose birthday is close to mine.

As we were preparing to leave the sauna, my Norwegian friend wrote in the guest book that a Norwegian, an American, and a Russian had enjoyed a 'fantastisk' time together, a simple reminder of the harmony we can create across borders.

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Reading, Listening, Reflecting

“Do not let anything that happens in life be important enough that you’re willing to close your heart over it.”  - from The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

I didn't read as much as I had hoped in Bergen, but lately I have returned to The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer, one of a handful of books I brought with me from the U.S. Its insights feel grounding during transitions and times when parts of my life feel chaotic or out of sync, and it is one of the few books I revisit. I've also just begun 'Early Man and the Ocean: The beginning of navigation and seaborn civilizations' by Thor Heyerdahl.

Lately my playlist has slowed and shifted in the direction of Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Carole King, Ray LaMontagne, Wilco, Van Morrison, and John Prine. I have also been gripped by 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything on AppleTV and have been listening to the soundtrack as a result.

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Finding Inspiration + Gratitude

• I am grateful for stateside friends who send me little things that mean so much. Most recently, a drone shot of my cabin in western Wisconsin (thanks Scotty!).

My tiny cabin on 3 acres

• I've been inspired by Ian Andersen ('Ride with Ian'), a Minnesotan sharing honest observations as he cycles across continents (he just finished biking through Afghanistan on his way to Japan). I appreciate his raw, unapologetic approach.

• My friend Curt is bravely and beautifully chronicling his journey on Substack after a biopsy of his tongue came back positive for cancer in the spring.

• Grateful for this post:

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Learn A Norwegian Word

In this edition, let's look at the days of the week (the first day of the week is considered Monday in Norway, in case you notice that difference on the calendar below):

• week = uke

• Monday = Mandag

• Tuesday = Tirsdag

• Wednesday = Onsdag

• Thursday = Torsdag

• Friday = Fredag

• Saturday = Lørdag

• Sunday = Søndag

Several days are named after Norse gods: Tuesday (Tirsdag) is named after Tyr, the god of war; Wednesday (Onsdag) after Odin, the god of wisdom and magic; Thursday (Torsdag) after Thor, the god of thunder; and Friday (Fredag) after Frigg, the goddess of love and marriage.

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Preparing for the Harvest Season

Jessheim | August 2024

As summer fades, I find myself taking stock of what feels most important and what I want to carry into the season ahead. Despite the distance and uncertainty, I am grateful for the abundance around me and the reminders that every ending carries the seeds of a new beginning.

I look forward to sharing more from this corner of the world when the leaves have fallen and the first snow arrives.

Marla