Hello world!

This is the person behind this blog, and my name is Henriette!

I’m a dutch-norwegian girl that grew up in the green countryside in Norway’s most south-eastern corner. My region has the second highest amount of agriculture in the country, and I grew up mostly surrounded by fields and farms, and by forests and moose. So growing up, the hard work of farming and living side by side with nature has always been a normal for me. Currently I am a psychology student at the University of Oslo, that is on a one-semester exchange at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The older I grow, and the more time I spend away from my home village, the more and more I value and love this place, the things it has thought me and the values it has given me.

My relationship with nature

I am a big lover of animals and nature, and I have also grown up witnessing  the cycle of life and death, and the brutal nature of nature, up close. Every year I spend springtime with tens of newborn goats and baby pigs, and often also puppies. I’ve witness the hatching of chickens countless times and also the several births of kittens. But I have also had small chickens dying in my hands as I’m trying to save them. I’ve seen those goats after being butchered and I’ve eaten those pigs I have cared for and fed. A fair amount of our chickens and ducks have been eaten by the foxes and my cats brings me dead mice all the time. I’ve seen animals being butchered and remains of moose organs lying outside on the field after hunting season. It is not a pretty sight, and it is always, always heart clenchingly sad. But it is both a natural and normal part of the world for me. It is a raw and unfiltered and real view of life that is both beautiful and brutal. It’s a closeness to nature that I’m glad to have grown up in.

The wolf debate and me

Seen in the eyes of the wolf debate, this is a perspective I am very grateful that I have. This is a debate with a big differences in opinion, as people have very different experiences with nature. It is a debate you can view on a very theoretical and ethical level of “killing other animals is wrong” or “ruling over nature is wrong”. This is both a point of view I strongly feel an understanding for and agree with. But nature is not that easy, and nature does not work on a theoretical and ethical level. This is a debate because it is interfering with a lot of people’s lives, income, and the lives of a lot of animals. Nature is also us humans wanting to protect ourselves and the animals we care about. The debate happens on a level of here and now consequences and interferes with the functioning of a life that is the most side by side with nature there is, and this must be taken into account together with the ethical dilemma behind this debate.  I have looked a wild wolf in the eyes not far from my neighbors yard, and I am grateful for having this direct connection with nature and a knowledge of the world that lives side-by-side with both nature and the wolves. This makes it easier to see and reflect on both sides of this debate.