May 14, 2025

It’s official! We have entered the land of the non-setting sun as evidenced by the photos below.

We spent yesterday at our last port of call in Norway, Honningsvag. This is a remote fishing village with colorful houses, a working harbor and a hearty people.

There is one statue in town, and it is dedicated to a dog. The Bamae Monument honors an unusual World War II hero a St. Bernard dog. This dog served with the Norwegian navy and “Bamae” means teddy bear in Norwegian signifying the attachment the sailors had to this dog. Bamae became a symbol of loyalty and bravery. Known for calming sailors during attacks and even rounding up crew members who stayed too long at the pub. On his death in 1944, he was buried with full military honors. This is a lovely tribute to a truly legendary dog.

In the Arctic you don’t live by the clock, you live by the light. When you first hear that it sounds kind of poetic until it’s 3:00 a.m. in the morning and you are eating cold herring and wondering if its breakfast or dinner. There are months of total darkness, not like living in a coal mine but a constant dark blue twilight that messes with your biorhythms. Norwegians have found a way to live in a place that by many standards should be unlivable and that fact has greater implications for all of us.

In normal places our circadian rhythms follow the sun, your body clock is a 24-hour cycle, tells you when to wake, when to sleep, when to eat, when to repeat. Even in total darkness our bodies do have an internal time, that is why jet lag hits so hard. You change your watch, but your body rhythms don’t change. Your circadian rhythms are still tuned into an old time zone, and it can take days to catch up. Now imagine that confusion when the sun doesn’t rise at all.

The University of the Arctic has done more research on polar survival that anywhere else on earth and have found that Norwegians develop their own internal seasons. They don’t keep to strict schedules; they adjust to how their bodies feel. They stop asking what time it is and start asking what kind of light it is.

If you are like me and feel half-dressed if you are not wearing a watch this could be very unsettling. But the reality is that watches came late-they created the illusion that time can be changed. The sun always wins. And Norwegians have learned to live with their nation’s irregular heartbeat.

Time in Norway was not measured by a watch, but by migrations. The reindeers moved and the people followed. It’s called “boazjohtin” (translated “seasonal migration”) In the summer reindeers grazed on coastal pastures in the winter they headed inland. The rhythm was predictable, but it wasn’t fixed, it depended on the weather. Life followed the land, not the calendar. When the reindeers moved, the people knew what time it was. Time wasn’t divided into hours, but into journeys. It was not about conquering the land but adapting to it. What did the land tell you?

Most of us are not used to planning our lives around the sun. We check our calendars, not the clouds. But what if life doesn’t follow your plans. What about those times of emotional darkness that we all face in life. You have to adapt. When life is not predictable it requires mental flexibility.

Letting go of rigid expectations and listening to your environment can be difficult. It is not about conquering the dark but learning how to live through it. Normal is negotiable. In Norway it could snow at your wedding in July!

What happens when there is no sun in your life? How do you cope?

In the end, it is all about attitude. If you expect winter to be awful, it probably will be. The secret is not in trying to avoid the darkness but knowing how to live with it.

Time is more than numbers. When you’re north of normal that’s when you figure out how adaptable you are.

That is a good lesson for all of us to learn.

Thanks for traveling with us.