Category: English

I love jogging. I have been jogging since I was a teenager. It must be genetic because my grandfather from my dad’s side used to run every morning. I think he was fond of sports all his life. He played baseball and did some boxing when he was younger. My dad told me that when my grandfather was in his sixties, he had a heart attack. After he came home from the hospital, he was so scared that for some weeks, he wouldn’t move from a chair he had placed at a sunny spot in his bedroom. My dad had to have a serious talk with him to get him up from the chair and back to life. After that, he would wake up early every morning and walk to a park called Chapultepec in Mexico City, and run. Afterwards, we would walk back home. He lived until he was around 94.

I haven’t been as disciplined as my grandfather with my jogging during the last two or three years. Partly because I feel I get enough exercise by using my bike and walking as my main means of transportation. However, whenever I have time, I love to go for a run. It is something my husband and I enjoy doing together, so often, during holidays, we make ourselves a little routine. It is a nice way to do something together, and to explore new places. It is also important to stay more or less fit in the slow pace of holidays.

This summer, we’ve been incredibly lucky. Because of the pandemic, we didn’t dare to plan any trip, but we wanted to find a place to enjoy the Norwegian nature. When I shared this wish with a friend, she and her husband offered us to borrow their cabin. My husband and I like to go for hikes, but our youngest and oldest are not as keen as we are, so we have made an agreement with them, we go hiking every other day. On the remaining days, my husband and go jogging.

It’s been a long time since I last jogged, and the path we are running is quite hilly. We started running 3k and decided to add gradually during our stay. There is a long hill on the way out and a steep relatively long one on the way back. I have been playing with my mind when running up these hills, to see what helps me most when I feel like giving up.

I started pep-talking myself, ‘you can do it!’, ‘it will get easier throughout the weeks’, ‘the hill is almost over’. It helped to a certain degree, and I didn’t give up, but it still felt super heavy at some point. I then decided to focus on the benefits I get from running, ‘this his healthy for you’, ‘feel your legs getting stronger’, and the sorts. Still, too heavy and painful. Until I decided to rather focus on my breath and the unpleasant feeling. Not feed into the feeling, not judge the feeling, just feel it. Where do I feel it? How does it feel?

The truth is, nothing makes the hills less unpleasant. Some days, they feel easier, some days, the first one feels easier and halfway through the second I feel like crying, but I keep jogging, and most importantly, I keep breathing. It feels wonderful when we come to the top of the last hill, and I know that the last stretch to the cabin is smooth. I feel strong and powerful. I never regret going out for a run.

As usual, I can’t help but draw parallels with life. When life circumstances feel like a steep long uphill, what do I do? How do I talk to myself? How do I help myself get through the situation? Do I encourage myself and trust in my ability to get through it? Do I tend to overthink? If yes, how about just focusing on my breath to climb the hill?

We can’t always turn an unpleasant situation into a pleasant one no matter how much we try to change our outlook, but they usually have an end. There is no endless uphill. And even if it doesn’t feel like it when we’re struggling, we always come out of it a little bit stronger, a little bit wiser.

During the Summer, there are many seagulls in Trondheim. They are everywhere, by the sea, by some lakes, and of course, in the city. When the chicks are very young, the adult seagulls can be quite aggressive and attack people walking close to where the chicks are. They can also be quite aggressive to get food. Last year, we saw a seagull snap a piece of bread from a man’s hand.

This causes a lot of irritation and today, I heard my son say “I hate seagulls”. I’m not trying to be a goody-two-shoes here, but I felt a knott in my heart when he said that. Yes, they can be aggressive during the early Summer, but if we reflect a bit, we can acknowledge that we have invaded their natural habitat, and we continue to do so. There is almost no place near the fjord without human activity, so what can they do? They have to adapt. They nest on rooftops, they eat from our waste, and now, they even snatch food out of people’s hands.

It is annoying when we have to run through the street or walk another way to get somewhere to avoid the chicks and their protective parents, but it is during a short period during the year, I think we owe them that for taking so much space.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the distance we have created between us and nature. I guess this is different from place to place, but I feel that most of us have very little knowledge of the fauna and flora that belong to the place where we live. This is a pity, because not only we miss out a lot, we also do a lot of harm that we wouldn’t do if we knew better.

I believe that people’s littering, animal abuse and harming of other living beings would stop if they were more in contact with nature. If they spent more time outdoors, observing, being curious and learning from it.

The more time I spend in nature, the more I gain respect for its processes and its natural cycles. I think that living in Norway and being so much in the forest and in nature in general has been good for me to be more mindful of what I do, what I consume and the attitude I have towards all living beings.

My kids are growing up, and the youngest and oldest are now starting to have alternative plans to our trips to the forest and by the fjord. Still, I try to push them to come at least once a week, and share with them my interest for birds, plants, trees, and mushrooms as I keep learning about and from the local nature. They sometimes roll their eyes, or want to continue walking, but I hope this will awake in them the respect for nature that I feel we all need in order to preserve what is left of it.

Whenever I go for a walk in nature, I try to remind myself to not wear headphones either. This allows me to be more present, to listen to what is going on. It creates less distance.

In addition, I can honestly say, that nothing brings more peace to my mind than a walk in the forest, a dip in the cold fjord or a skiing trip in the middle of the long, cold and dark winter. One of the most fun things I can do with my husband and sometimes my kids is to pick berries and make jam or pick mushrooms and make a delicious dinner. It makes us feel connected with our environment, and we swear that the food we make with what we pick from nature tastes much better than the one bought in the supermarked.