Friday has moved quickly.

I am still sitting in Oslo as I write this, finishing the last things before I close the computer and head home to Tønsberg with my love to my children.
It has been one of those Fridays that almost disappears before you have had time to notice it. Calls, messages, small decisions and all the things that somehow become urgent just because the weekend is getting closer.

Soon, though, the pace will change.

We will soon get in the car and drive south.

It is a journey we have made many times, and perhaps that is exactly why I like it. There is something about the road between Oslo and Tønsberg that creates a natural shift. Work gradually gives way to weekend. The noise of the day settles. Thoughts that have been waiting quietly in the background suddenly get a little more space.

Some people find that kind of pause on a walk. Others find it on a train.

For me, sometimes it is simply the drive home.

Last weekend, my oldest daughter and I were eating tacos together in Northern Norway. Tonight, we will be back in Tønsberg. Different place, same small tradition.

And I like that.

There is something reassuring about the ordinary things that follow us from one place to another.

Tomorrow is my birthday

Once I get home, the evening will probably be less reflective.

There is baking to do, a house to tidy and things to prepare.
Because tomorrow I turn another year older.

Being a mother has taught me many things, including this rather simple truth: you do not only bake cakes for everyone else’s birthdays.
Sometimes you bake your own too.
That is simply how it works.

I have never been particularly comfortable with celebrating myself. I would much rather celebrate the people around me. I enjoy planning for someone else, finding the right present, setting the table, making the food and creating a day that makes another person feel special.

Being the person everyone is supposed to celebrate feels slightly less natural.
But perhaps birthdays change meaning as we get older.

They become less about the number and more about the people who are still around the table.

Who calls.
Who shows up.
Who has shared the good periods and stayed through the difficult ones.

That is what I am looking forward to tomorrow.
Not being the centre of attention.
Simply being surrounded by people I love.

Where life actually happens

The news cycle has been moving all day, as it always does.

Politics, markets, business, conflict and uncertainty compete constantly for our attention. There will always be another headline to read, another development to follow and another opinion to consider.

Yet while all of that is happening, life continues quietly somewhere else.

At a kitchen table.
In a car driving home.
Over tacos with your daughter.

While cleaning the house before guests arrive.
While waiting for a cake to finish in the oven.

Perhaps we sometimes confuse what is loud with what is important.
Most of the moments that shape a life will never become headlines.

They are simply lived.

A thought worth carrying home

Maya Angelou once wrote:
“People will never forget how you made them feel.”

It is one of those sentences that becomes more meaningful with time.

We measure so much in life.
Progress, results, money, growth, titles and achievements.

But very little can be measured about kindness, loyalty, presence or the feeling of knowing that someone genuinely cares.
And yet those may be the things we remember longest.

Maybe that is worth thinking about on a Friday evening.
Especially before a birthday.

Friday Fun Fact

Since tacos are once again part of the Friday plan, here is today’s small fact.

The exact origin of the word taco is still debated. One historical theory links the term to Mexican silver miners, who used the word for small paper charges wrapped around gunpowder.

A rather dramatic beginning for something that, in our family at least, has become one of the calmest traditions of the week.

And maybe that is why I like traditions.
They give us small points of familiarity in lives that are constantly changing.

The Nordè thought

At Nordè, there is a simple idea I keep returning to:

Stay curious. Stay human.

Curiosity keeps us looking outward.
Being human reminds us to notice what is already close.
There should be room for both.

n a little while, I will close the computer, leave Oslo and start the drive home to Tønsberg.
I know the road.
I know where the landscape begins to change.

And somewhere along the way, Friday will finally start to feel like Friday.
Then there will be tacos, baking, cleaning and preparations for tomorrow.

How the birthday weekend turns out, you can read about on Monday.
For now, I am just looking forward to the road home with my love.

Stay curious. Stay human.

Tonje