#68.9, Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea           It’s a sleepless night for every man under the worn, waxed sails and sheltered beneath these boats we’ve hauled up on the beach to keep them from the storm. The booms and crashes, cracks of thunder, flashing skies — it is hard to know ifContinue reading “#68.9, Wednesday, May 21, 2025”

#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea [Art note: painted by this blogger copying a photo by Carol Ann Munro taken on an early morning on the SW side of Lake Michigan] Is the source of heaven only in the human imagination? Is it a pondering we all share as humankind of aContinue reading “#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025”

#68.7, Thursday, May 15, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea          We are gathering ships and men for a journey at sea. It seems to require lots of preparation and lots of waiting. I ask Gunnar what he knows of this.           “We’ve all seen it and felt it. The gods are restless and the timeContinue reading “#68.7, Thursday, May 15, 2025”

#68.6, Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen           Gunnar, one of the sailors on the boat that stopped for Sjókona, is telling me what has become of her. We are both assuming Sjókona’s demand for a “god” could be met by any man. I was hoping her idea of a Christian god was not aContinue reading “#68.6, Wednesday, May 14, 2025”

#68.5, Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen  “Mothers grieve for their lost daughters. And this deceased mother of many warriors grieved for one daughter, Sjókona, once set out for exposure. She couldn’t rest in death until she visited the wretched place one more time hoping to reunite with the daughter.”          Gunnar is telling meContinue reading “#68.5, Tuesday, May 13, 2025”

#68.4, Thursday, May 8, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen I’ve found Gunnar, one of the sailors who brought us over, the one I had told that Sjókona was alone in the house with no door. I had heard a storyteller’s version spinning up a yarn of strange details and now I am hearing the story from GunnarContinue reading “#68.4, Thursday, May 8, 2025”

#68.3, Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen          I’ve found the fellow, Gunnar, from the longship that brought Sjókona and I to this land and he’s the one I told of her circumstance alone and waiting at the ruin of the house where it was known that sorrowing thralls put their infant girls out forContinue reading “#68.3, Wednesday, May 7, 2025”

#68.2, Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen          As the story continued this account of sailors meeting Sjókona sent the Norsemen chanting and cheering, though for me, it was painful. The story was finished and now there are only the murmers of a drunken party. I asked the storyteller, so what of Sjókona?           “WasContinue reading “#68.2, Tuesday, May 6, 2025”

#68.1, Thursday, May 1, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen Grief left me longing for familiar touch and fragrances of once love– the precious belonging. All the years I shared with Ana leave me grieving in a way that isn’t resolved simply by replacing the closeness of loved ones with new people. The hardest thing to accept areContinue reading “#68.1, Thursday, May 1, 2025”

#67.14, Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Moorings at Bergenshalvoyen  The tale the storyteller offers tickles the sailors’ imaginations in one way. But for me, I think of her tender touch on my tired shoulders that day that set me grieving and leaving her there. Now I hurt for her all the more. The one who is tellingContinue reading “#67.14, Wednesday, April 30, 2025”