FOLLOWING THE FJORDS

Majestic mountains, formed by massive movements of earth’s mantle (shifting plate tectonics) along cracks, crags, fissures and fractures called “faults”, or over hundreds of thousands of years by the depositing of colossal tonnage of sediment along shore lines that presses down on one side and like a gigantic see-saw, forces mantle upward creating peaks and ridges of great elevation. This explains the presence of mountain ranges along coastal areas worldwide.

But then by a different process, or actually a single long-term event, which took place a mere thirty thousand years ago, fjords were created. Imagine a significant portion of earth’s surface was covered with colossally huge and extraordinarily heavy ice formations. At the end of the current “Ice Age” the ice formations grew to a height of over 12,000 feet thick. The sheer weight of the ice sufficient to depress the Earth’s crust, and was capable of causing enormous changes to the Earth’s surface, reshaping the landscape.

At a peak in the Garainger Fjord area.

An early morning scene at Sognefjord

As temperatures drop, layers of melting ice form beneath the enormity of glaciers causing a ‘rink’-like effect, allowing for the gliding of ice mountains back toward the Northern poles. This ‘recession’ is of such indescribable force, an unstoppable retreat, that mammoth chunks of crust and rock are lifted and drifted away,ripping, tearing and carving out valleys, rivers and lakes that widen and deepen over time.

Sogneford Fjord

A snow-capped Mountain View in Sognefjord.

A puny trickle
A torrent of waterfalls
Each part of the whole

On our first full day, the four of us traveled by bus, train, and boat leaving only a camel, as Adele would point out, as the sole means of unutilized transportation. This was an extraordinary day, for in the presence of all this magnificence, I sense the smallness of our existence. Small is not menial or meaningless. No. Contrarily, neither is it important or vital. We are not distinguishable from all the diversity within the vast play of Source’s intermeshing manifest nature. We are an expression, a single gesture of that infinite wonder of all that Source is. This knowledge forces one to be humble and modest. We are here for a purpose, no doubt. First and foremost, to be what we are as exemplary models of humanity. Nothing more is asked by anyone’s god. There is an essence to each ‘being’. Be human. That is not always pretty or easy., So many brain cells, the struggle with ego, politics, religion, State boundaries, ownership of resources, personal limitations. When do we give ourselves the chance to be integral with nature? Oh yes, it is perfect that we are imperfect…even slowly destroying our planet. Thus, in the grander sense we are contributing to the ever-growing, larger body of knowledge of our manifest nature for future generations.

Lysefjord

I do not fear death in the presence of this grace and grandeur. In such vastness I am filled with…the only word I can think of is…dignity. Not the self-centered dignity of prestige or position, rather the dignity of decency and virtue. I am not consumed by taking, instead I sense a wish to be taken, to give myself over. I feel less the need to ‘represent’ myself, instead to present myself and by my actions. I want more to be ‘a part of’ than ‘apart from’. I do not have a ‘death wish’, yet, what I seek are moments closest to death - to be filled with unselfconscious and overwhelming joy, when the profound subjective is absent of words and descriptions or definitions. Then, I am limitless as the sky that frames all this beauty. I am Love.

Hardangerfjord

Snow falling on top
Record heat on valley floor
There’s no climate change?

Hairpin turns going up and coming down Geiranger Fjord

An installation on a street in Trondheim

Aurlandsfjord