My Author



EN	TH	JP

Snow cracked under my feet as I walked home from school. It was late November in Telemark, Norway. A deep frost blanketed the landscape, and heavy Ice crystals had formed on wet snow from milder temperatures a few days earlier. Now everything was at a frozen panorama; just thick layers of snow and ice covering the landscape. Even the swift waterfall in the river had frozen solid, with the rushing water suspended in mid air like a huge wall of ice. What had just a few months earlier been green trees and a flora in magnificent colors had now turned into a world of black and white. Just an occasional sparrow would fly from treetop to treetop, looking for food.

At this time of the year there is not much sunlight. On clear days the sun will barely peek above the mountainside around noon and start its descent around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. That is a sharp contrast to the summer months, where we would have daylight all the time! But in the fall darkness sets in with a vengeance, though the white snow helps.

I still remember the year well. It was 1957 and I was 8 years old. It was the year of Sputnik1, the first artificial satellite to be sent to outer space. I also remember we had a teacher at our school that was bald and often had a hot temper. Mischievous children secretly referred to him as Sputnik as well! Like so many times before I remember walking home from school, a trip that would take at least an hour and a half. Weather did not matter; the school was always open. No snow days here! There was also no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!

I had stopped by a friend’s house, and was walking home alone. Suddenly the sky lit up in all colors imaginable. Wave after wave I could see colors rolling over the sky in blue, green, red and many other colors and I could feel the air fill with static electricity. The sudden outburst of colors petrified me. Then I heard my mother’s voice far off calling my name. “Where are you? It’s suppertime!” I ran and told her what had happened, but she just calmly said, “It is the Northern Lights, have you not seen them before?” With that I settle down for the evening.

Many years have passed since I first saw the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis as it is officially called. But I was almost 50 years old before I saw a different kind of light in my life. For years I have always enjoyed writing, but now through encouragement from friends and my wife, Judy I started to write full time. I often tell friends it took me 50 years to learn, but now I want to spend my next 50 writing.

I enjoy writing together with people. I like to pick up their views about everything, their thoughts, their feelings and transfer this spirit into anything I write. We all have a dream and I enjoy pursuing that dream. Where the road will then take me, I do not know. All I know is - it has been an exciting journey so far, taking me to places I would never thought on my own.