Things the fjord makes me think of

I am perfectly aware that it have been over two months since I have posted anything. And I also am aware that my last entry involved me saying that I may write more "blogger" type entries that are impulsive and less drafted than what I've posted previously. Well, I don't think that's happening yet. For the past two months, I have been concerned with finishing my first year of teaching, moving, getting married, going to Norway and then coming back and going to Chicago. It has been a whirlwind. Forgive me that I have not put anything out onto the blogosphere.

Any rate, what I have included below is something that I wrote in my travel journal on 19 June. We were staying in a cabin about two miles from Flåm, Norway. It sat right next to the fjord and, this particular day, I sat out under the eaves while it was drizzling and wrote the following list, the name for which is also the title of this blog entry.

• The moment that a Tolkienian Elf first sees the ocean rising from the mist or shining in the evening sun
• Deep waters, turquoise blue and frigid
• The tide creeping up or slipping away when you're not looking
• It's hiding secrets, out there in the shipping lanes
• When it rains, the droplets reveal which water is swelling and which is being pulled by the current
• The low-hanging, misty clouds that lurk on the mountains when the conditions are right
• How the size of the water and the mountains make the passing cruise ships look like toys
• When you live on a fjord, you could be a farmer while your next door neighbor is a fisherman
• You go out to explore and find yourself so small but so intimate with the place, all at once
• You can look across the valley and see there is still snow on top of the opposite mountain, while its feet go right down into the dark water (though my reaction is still it's not that big; I could climb it)
• How people figured out such good ways to make houses here, but the tradition is so deep and so authentic. What's more is it was all developed before machines were around to help