08/02/2026
I had been thinking about posting photos of this magical place for months, but I felt that it wasn’t the right time because I couldn’t find the right words. The photos don’t do justice to what the house is like either.
The sky is burnt and I don’t care.
I still think about the feelings I had at Sela Retreat.
From the moment we parked, I knew it wasn’t just any place. The two chairs overlooking the fjord, Swany at the door waiting to welcome us, the wooden floorboards creaking as we entered, the warmth of the house contrasting with the cold outside, the smell of burning wood...
Swany told us the history of the house, and although it was a brief conversation, I didn’t need anything else to understand the importance of this place. Her eyes said it all. Perhaps I created my own idyllic story with the few details she shared, but in the way she spoke about her husband, her dream home come true, her daughters, her work, her travels and all the countries they had lived in, I realised the meaning of life.
At the kitchen table at Sela Retreat, I read on social media that Jane Goodall had died. Somehow, I connected Swany with Jane. The paintings in the house, the family photographs, the souvenirs from different parts of the world... The energy in that room screamed of a life well lived.
Thinking small, perhaps it was the binoculars hanging just inside the door that made me connect them, or thinking big, seeing that her life’s goals had been fulfilled.
My purpose began in 2017. At the same time, I started travelling and taking photos. What fascinated me about photography at first was being able to communicate through images. Today, l’m grateful for having written about the photos from my travels and for them serving as memories.
I want to remember this house forever.
