(yes, it is) 23 of May – 26 of June I’ll be one of three residents in the project Walking Peace in the Avian Kingdom in Sweden, organised by ARNA at the very spot where two pilgrim trails meet in Harlösa. Walking Peace is a green, slow and peaceful way of making new connections across cultural backgrounds and religions, creating art as a statement for peace while walking. Afterwards I'll be researching the pioneer life in Värmland.

5.7.13

The sad story of the lizard and the salamander

There is a well in the back of the garden. When we want to cook, wash, make tea, drink water, we get water from the well. Since a few days there has been a salamander on the bottom of the well. He sits there and stares at you. Halfway down the well, dry on the big stones, is a lizard.

I was surprised to see a lizard there. Don’t they like warm places? I wondered if the lizard had fallen in love with the salamander, an impossible love.
I didn’t think about them for the last two days. Whenever I collected water I thought about other things. I did see the salamander once but the lizard had disappeared.

This morning the lizard was floating in the water. I got him out. Dead. Tailless. I wondered if he had jumped to be with the salamander that was still at the bottom of the well. Motionless. Too motionless maybe. And I realised I had only seen him in this one fixed location in the same position.

I got a wooden stick, put it in the well but the salamander didn’t move. I skooped him up, got him out with some difficulty, the wannabe salamander. It was only another lizard. Uncapable of living under the water surface.

For a moment I imagined an even more romantic story. A lizard committing suicide to be with his loved one. Together at the bottom of the well forever. But there is no story here. Only nature. A dark well build out of slippery stones. Once inside, a lizzard can’t get out.As simple as that.

Later on, Camilla told me that they have an eel in their well. A lot of wells have one. An eel to eat all the animals that end up at the bottom so the water doesn’t get polluted.

A lonely eel in a well. Another sad story.