When my walls of defense are all I have left You ask me to open the door And forgive When my silence and my space is all that protects me You ask me to speak And invite in When my crusted heart is all that moves in me You take it in your hands And [...]

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I have had reason to review my life these past few weeks, …and the process made me realised that it wasn’t long ago that my life was everything I wanted. 2009 was a year of sunshine, …life quality… …peace & serenity… …and joy. Everything flowed, the world was as it should be, the sky was [...]

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My least favourite month of the Nigerien calender is June, the month that so often gets caught between the peak of hot season and the beautiful rainy season. Since a week back, our days are hot and sticky, with the Swedish sauna effect frequently enhanced by numerous power cuts, long water shortages and Internet absences. [...]

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There’s a song that my heart has started to sing whenever tragedy occurs. It’s a love song of sacrifice; a song of walking the narrow road no matter the price, even if darkness seems to swallow all the light. It’s a song sung by Andrae Crouch, called “I’ll Keep on Loving You”: I thought I’d [...]

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There is beauty in everything, even though we often don’t stop to look for it. I never expected to find such beauty in the heart of an artichoke, but I’m glad I did. Those are the little moments I just love to stumble upon!

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Everywhere I’ve been this past week, I’ve seen snow. Beautiful white snow. It is the kind that adults talk about and children dream about. Pure white snow. Inbetween the beautiful and the pure, there are spots of tainted snow. It is the kind that adults accept with time, but which children can never dream about. [...]

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Mormor. If I could just turn back time, I would come and sit at your table. I would share a Swedish fika with you and I would listen to your heart. It was so beautiful. Mormor, my very own dearest grandmother. You loved your maker more than anyone I have ever met. Your heart was [...]

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Breathe. Little child, who stands by the edge of reason, remember to breathe. You were not brought here to be alone. Do not be afraid. You will not lose foothold against the strong winds. Just breathe. Hear your heart. It tells you the truth which anguish cannot push aside. Follow your heart. It will guide [...]

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Although I decided a long time ago that I would stop celebrating our baby critters’ monthly birthdays after their first year, it’s seems next to impossible to forgo a well defined habit. The first of every month will always make me think of the day last September when Arwen – finally! – had beautiful little [...]

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It’s my mother’s birthday today. She would have been 57 years old. It’s the day before taking the flight to Africa, but it’s still a special day. Her day. Like any daughter, I would have given a lot just to be able to share a cup of coffee again and talk about the little things; [...]

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My sister and father came back yesterday from an overwhelming twelve day journey to Poland. For the past year, my sister has been working on a book project about a fascinating Norwegian person who had an impact on many. One of the threads landed her in the world of the SS Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary groups formed [...]

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Despite it being the least developed country in the world, I always miss Niger when I’m away. It doesn’t matter how well functioning my native Sweden is on the outside – I miss the simplicity of the bush, the blueness of the sky, the joy of a stranger’s laughter as we meet for the first [...]

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Since arriving in Sweden, I’ve had a hard time adjusting to the food culture that the food industry has been pushing for a long period of time now. I never used to think so much about what I bought before, but after reading a Swedish book entitled “Äkta Vara” by food journalist Mats-Eric Nilsson (which [...]

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Yesterday, my sister Miriam Garvi wrote a post at the Vision Pioneers Blog that really touched me. Nature (and the senseless abuse of limited resources) has been on my mind lately and the way our modern society exploits everything for a short-term benefit without any regards for the coming generation has touched a deeper cord [...]

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