Santa and the Unanswered Questions of Life

A Nordic reflection on trust, guardianship, and the invisible forces that sustain us.
Inspired by an earlier post, “The Trusted Tomten – a background check”

“The midwinter cold is hard,
the stars glitter and gleam.
All are asleep on the lonely farm,
deep in the midnight hour.
The moon follows its silent path,
snow gleams white on pine and fir,
snow gleams white on the roofs.
Only the Tomten is awake.”
— Viktor Rydberg

As human beings, we need stories to understand the world. Not to provide all the answers — but to help us live with the questions.

We need images, rhythms, and figures that help us find our way when darkness is dense and the future has not yet taken shape. And we need to believe in something. Not necessarily in the grand or spectacular — but in what endures. What watches. What continues its work even when everyone else is asleep.

We also need trusted leaders. Not those who are most visible, but those who carry the greatest responsibility.

The Tomten is just such a figure.

Pause for a moment:
Which stories help you orient yourself when the future is still unclear?
Who — or what — watches over your life?

The Invisible One Who Does Not Need to Be Seen

The roots of Santa Claus are often described through a Western narrative. History Today traces him to a blend of Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas, explaining how migration shaped his identity — and how, around 1820, he acquired his reindeer. It is an interesting story. But it is incomplete.

It overlooks the Scandinavian Tomten. Which is understandable. He cannot be seen.

In a time when visibility is often mistaken for significance, the Tomten reminds us of something else: that the most important work often happens quietly.

Before Santa, the Tomten

In the Nordic countries, Tomtar and Nisses have existed since Viking and Old Norse times. They belong to the farm, the soil, the animals, and the household. They appear around midwinter — when nights are longest and human dependence on nature is most profound.

The Tomten was never primarily a fairy tale. He was real — as belief, presence, and practice.

So real that both church and secular authorities attempted, already in the 14th century, to ban belief in him. Contemporary sources speak of tomte gods — an echo of an older worldview in which the Tomten stood at the threshold between humanity, nature, and something greater.

The Nordic Tomten is not grand.
He works in the small and the near — quietly, practically, close to the earth.
Where he is treated with care, he responds with steadfast loyalty.

Take with you:
Trust and responsibility have deep roots — older than our modern institutions.

The Serving Guardian

The Tomten protects the house, the family, and the animals. He helps with daily tasks, keeps watch while others sleep, and ensures that what has been entrusted to him continues to function.

But he can also be quick-tempered. Ignored, mocked, or forgotten, he can become dangerous. This makes the Tomten surprisingly modern.

He is a servant leader — one who gives by nature, yet also needs to be seen, acknowledged, and respected. Not for power, but for responsibility.

Reflection:
When have you carried responsibility in silence?
And when has someone done so for you?

Here the Tomten meets a far older theme: animals as guardians.

Animals as Guardians Between Worlds

In Nordic folklore — as in many cultures — animals are not subordinate to humans. They are companions and guardians. They carry memory, warnings, and wisdom between worlds.

This theme was central to my exhibition earlier this year:
Eyes Woven with Time – Guardians of the Invisible Thread, where animal gazes held both what has been and what has not yet been spoken.

When Viktor Rydberg’s Tomten makes his nightly rounds, this is exactly what he does. He tends to the animals first. The horses. The cows. The sheep. The hens. The dog — who recognizes his Tomten, because they are old friends. It is a mutual guardianship. They watch over one another.

The Tomten and Life’s Unanswered Questions

Rydberg’s poem makes the Tomten more than a farm guardian.
He becomes an existential figure — one who carries questions that cannot be resolved.

“Generation followed generation, bloomed, aged, departed — but where to?”

The Tomten reflects on time. On the passing of generations. On the direction of life itself. He has no answers. But he remains with the question.

Perhaps that is what makes him a guardian: not that he knows — but that he watches.

The Tomten and the Fox — An Ethics of Care

Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002) was one of Sweden’s most beloved authors, known for stories that combined deep moral clarity with compassion, courage, and respect for the vulnerable. While she is internationally known for characters such as Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, and Karlsson-on-the-Roof, her interpretation of the Tomten reveals another side of her authorship — quiet, ethical, and deeply humane.

In The Tomten and the Fox, she gives the Tomten a new voice. Here, the Tomten becomes a moral compass.

The fox, Mickel, is hungry. It is Christmas Eve. And winter is long.

The Tomten stops the fox from taking a hen — not through punishment, but through understanding.

When a child leaves out a bowl of porridge, the Tomten shares it with Mickel, and promises to share again each night if the fox needs it.

In the Tomten’s world, care is not about rules — but about relationship.

This is his ethics: not law, but care. not power, but responsibility. not control, but sharing.

The Porridge on the Step

When I was a child, we always placed a bowl of porridge with an extra knob of butter outside on Christmas Eve. It was our way of saying thank you — for the year that had passed, for protection, for what had held.

And in the morning, the bowl was always empty. So the Tomten must have been there. Right?

What the Tomten Still Teaches Us

The Tomten still has something to teach us. Keeping watch does not have to be heavy. It can be a quiet choice. A way of being present — for one another, for what has been entrusted to us, for life unfolding even in silence.

From the Tomten we can learn to:
– watch without demanding attention
– take responsibility for what is close
– remain with the question, even when answers are absent
– understand care as action, not principle

The Tomten reminds us that guardians are not always visible. They are not loud. They ask for no recognition. Yet they hold the world together through care.

So when the midwinter night feels long, we can remember that someone is watching. And that, in small moments, we too can become guardians — for one another, for nature, for what is fragile and precious.

And perhaps that is where hope resides: in knowing that we are not alone in the darkness, and that there is always someone awake — sometimes, even ourselves.

From Guardianship to Hope — Shared Sparks in the Present

These reflections on the Tomten — on quiet guardianship, care without spectacle, and staying present with unanswered questions — also extend beyond the written word.

They are echoed in the ongoing group exhibition Sparks of Hope, where I exhibit together with other artists. The exhibition brings together different voices and expressions, yet is united by a shared exploration of hope — not as certainty or promise, but as something fragile, relational, and quietly sustained.

Here, hope appears in small gestures rather than grand declarations. In materials, marks, and images that invite slowing down, noticing, and staying with what is unfinished. Much like the Tomten, the works do not seek attention — they keep watch.

On December 29, the exhibition closes with a finissage. Not as a conclusion, but as a moment of gathering — a space for conversation with fellow artists and visitors about the year that is ending, the questions we carry forward, and the forms of care and guardianship we may choose to practice in the year ahead.

In the calm after the holidays, the finissage becomes a shared pause — a small, collective spark — reminding us that hope often lives not in answers, but in presence.

Threads of Culture and Humanness

This reflection on the Tomten grows out of earlier explorations of culture and tradition. Across these writings, the Tomten emerges as a shared cultural figure — one that helps generations speak about responsibility, care, and belonging.

In The Trusted Santa – A Background Check the Tomten is approached as a figure of trust and quiet continuity.

The Culture of the Scandinavian Tomte Helps Reflection and Planning for the Year Ahead explores how tradition supports reflection at the turning of the year.

And in Holiday Lessons for Boards – Sustainability, Purpose & Leadership
these cultural insights are read as expressions of deeply human needs for stewardship, care, and long-term responsibility.

Together, these threads suggest why traditions like the Tomten endure: they speak quietly but clearly to what it means to be human.

References and Further Reading

The works referenced below come from authors and traditions that have shaped Nordic reflections on responsibility, care, and the unseen forces that sustain everyday life.

Viktor Rydberg – Tomten
• Swedish original text of poem and English translations

Astrid Lindgren – The Tomten and the Fox
• Background and presentation (Swedish)

https://www.astridlindgren.com/se/the-tomten-and-the-fox-engelska-104815
https://www.astridlindgren.com/se/raven-och-tomten-900172
• The Tomten Is Awake – Astrid Lindgren
https://www.astridlindgren.com/se/tomten-ar-vaken-104996

Film & Music
• The Tomten and the Fox (song) – Peter Jöback & Moonica Mac (song)
• The Tomten and the Fox (movie) – SVT Children in swedish

The Scandinavian Tomten
• Wikipedia – Tomte

Santa Claus / Father Christmas
• History Today – How Father Christmas Found His Reindeer

The Tradition of Leaving Porridge for the Tomten
• Ice Cream Nation – Swedish Yule Rice

Artistic References – Novisali
• Eyes Woven with Time – Guardians of the Invisible ThreadA Gift of Presence

• En gåva av närvaro / A Gift of Presence
• Sparks of Hope Exhibition and Finissage

Tomten och livets obesvarade frågor

En nordisk fördjupning om tillit, beskydd och det osynliga som bär
Bygger på tidigare publicerad post om “Den betrodda tomten – en bakgrundskontroll”

”Midvinternattens köld är hård,
stjärnorna gnistra och glimma.
Alla sova i enslig gård
djupt under midnattstimma.
Månen vandrar sin tysta ban,
snön lyser vit på fur och gran,
snön lyser vit på taken.
Endast tomten är vaken.”
— Viktor Rydberg

Viktor Rydberg (1828–1895) var en svensk författare, poet och tänkare vars verk ofta kretsade kring etik, tro, mytologi och människans existentiella villkor. Dikten Tomten, skriven 1881, är en av hans mest älskade texter – inte för att den ger svar, utan för att den vågar stanna kvar vid livets obesvarade frågor.

Som människor behöver vi berättelser för att förstå världen. Inte för att få alla svar – utan för att kunna leva med frågorna. Vi behöver bilder, rytmer och gestalter som hjälper oss att orientera oss när mörkret är tätt och framtiden ännu inte syns. Och vi behöver tro på något. Inte nödvändigtvis på det storslagna – utan på det som håller. Det som vakar. Det som fortsätter sitt arbete även när alla andra sover.

Vi behöver också betrodda ledare. Inte de som syns mest, utan de som bär mest ansvar. Tomten är just en sådan gestalt.

Stanna upp en stund:
Vilka berättelser hjälper dig att orientera dig när framtiden ännu inte är tydlig?
Vem – eller vad – vakar i ditt liv?

Den osynlige som inte behöver synas

Jultomtens rötter beskrivs ofta genom en västerländsk berättelse. History Today spårar honom till en blandning av Sankt Nikolaus och Father Christmas, och berättar hur migration formade hans identitet – och hur han runt år 1820 fick sina renar. Det är en intressant historia. Men den är ofullständig.

Den missar den skandinaviska tomten. Vilket är förståeligt. Han kan ju inte ses.

I en tid där synlighet ofta förväxlas med betydelse, påminner tomten oss om något annat: att det viktigaste arbetet ofta sker i det tysta.

Tomten före tomten

I Norden har vi haft tomtar och nissar sedan vikingatid och fornnordisk tid. De hör till gården, jorden, djuren och hushållet. De visar sig kring midvintern – när nätterna är som längst och människans beroende av naturens krafter är som störst.

Tomten var aldrig en saga i första hand. Han fanns på riktigt. Så verklig att kyrkliga och världsliga myndigheter redan på 1300-talet försökte förbjuda tron på honom. I samtida källor talas det om tomtegudar – ett eko av en äldre världsbild där tomten stod i gränslandet mellan människa, natur och något större.

Den nordiska tomten är inte storslagen. Han verkar i det lilla – lågmält, praktiskt och nära jorden. Där han behandlas väl, svarar han med trofasthet.

Att ta med sig:
Tillit och ansvar har djupa rötter – äldre än våra moderna institutioner.

Den tjänande väktaren

Vår tomtenisse skyddar huset, familjen och djuren. Han hjälper till med sysslor, vakar när andra sover och ser till att det som anförtrotts honom fungerar.

Men han är också lättretlig. Ignoreras han, hånas eller glöms bort kan han bli farlig. Detta gör tomten märkligt modern.

Han är en tjänande ledare – en som ger av sin natur, men som också behöver bli sedd, erkänd och respekterad. Inte för sin makt, utan för sitt ansvar.

Reflektion:
När har du själv burit ansvar i det tysta? Och när har någon annan gjort det för dig?

Här möter tomten ett större och mycket gammalt tema:
djuren som beskyddare.

Djuren som väktare mellan världar

I nordisk folktro – liksom i många andra kulturer – är djuren inte underordnade människan. De är följeslagare och väktare. De bär minnen, varningar och visdom mellan världar.

Detta tema stod i centrum för min utställning från maj i år: Eyes Woven with Time – Guardians of the Invisible Thread, där djurens blickar bar både det förflutna och det ännu osagda

När Viktor Rydbergs tomte går sin runda på gården är det just detta han gör. Han ser till djuren först. Hästarna. Korna. Fåren. Hönsen. Hunden – som känner igen sin tomte, för de är gamla vänner.

Det är ett ömsesidigt beskydd. De vakar över varandra.

Tomten och livets obesvarade frågor

Rydbergs dikt gör tomten till mer än en gårdsväktare.
Han blir en existentiell gestalt – en som bär frågorna som inte låter sig lösas.

”Släkte följde på släkte snart, blomstrade, åldrades, gick – men vart?”

Tomten grubblar över tiden. Över släktledens gång. Över livets riktning. Han har inga svar. Men han stannar kvar vid frågan.

Kanske är det just detta som gör honom till en väktare: inte att han vet – utan att han vakar.

Tomten och räven – omsorgens etik

Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002) var en av Sveriges mest älskade författare, känd för berättelser som förenar moralisk klarhet med medkänsla, mod och respekt för det sårbara. Internationellt är hon mest känd för gestalter som Pippi Långstrump, Emil i Lönneberga och Karlsson på taket, men i hennes tolkning av tomten framträder en annan sida av hennes författarskap – stillsam, etisk och djupt human.

I Tomten och räven ger hon Tomten en ny röst. Här möter vi tomten som moralisk kompass.

Räven Mickel är hungrig. Det är julafton. Och vintern är lång. Tomten stoppar räven från att   ta en höna – men inte genom straff. Genom förståelse. När barnet ställer ut gröten delar Tomten den med Mickel. Och lovar att dela varje natt om räven behöver.

Omsorg, i tomtens värld, handlar inte om regler – utan om relation.

Detta är tomtens etik: inte lag, utan omsorg. inte makt, utan ansvar. inte kontroll, utan delande.

Gröten på trappan

När jag var liten ställde vi alltid ut en skål med gröt och en extra klick smör på julafton. Det var vårt sätt att säga tack – för året som gått, för skyddet, för det som fungerat.

Och på morgonen var skålen alltid tom.

Så Tomten måste ha varit där.
Eller hur?

Vad vi fortfarande kan lära av tomten

Tomten har fortfarande något att lära oss.

Att vaka behöver inte vara tungt. Det kan vara ett stilla val. Ett sätt att finnas till – för varandra, för det som anförtrotts oss, för livet som pågår även när det är tyst.

Av tomten kan vi lära oss att:
– vaka utan att kräva uppmärksamhet
– ta ansvar för det som är nära
– stanna vid frågan, även när svaret saknas
– förstå omsorg som handling, inte princip

Tomten påminner oss om att väktare inte alltid syns. De hörs inte. De kräver inget erkännande. Men de håller världen samman genom sin omsorg.

Så när midvinternatten känns lång kan vi minnas att någon vakar. Och att vi, i små ögonblick, också kan vara väktare – för varandra, för naturen, för det sköra och värdefulla.

Och kanske är det just där hoppet bor: i vetskapen om att vi inte är ensamma i mörkret,
och att det alltid finns någon som är vaken – ibland till och med vi själva.

Om tradition, kultur och det som gör oss mänskliga

Den här texten knyter an till tidigare tankar om kultur och tradition. Tillsammans låter de Tomten träda fram som en gemensam kulturell gestalt – en följeslagare genom tiden, som hjälper oss att sätta ord på ansvar, omsorg och känslan av att höra till.

I The Trusted Santa – A Background Check framträder Tomten som en symbol för tillit och stillsam kontinuitet.

I The Culture of the Scandinavian Tomte Helps Reflection and Planning for the Year Ahead utforskas hur traditioner kan hjälpa oss att stanna upp, reflektera och orientera oss när ett år går över i ett nytt.

Och i Holiday Lessons for Boards – Sustainability, Purpose & Leadership
översätts dessa kulturella mönster till samtida frågor om förvaltarskap, omsorg och långsiktigt ansvar.

Tillsammans visar dessa trådar varför traditioner som Tomten lever vidare:
de bär något djupt mänskligt – stillsamt, uthålligt och meningsfullt – genom tid och förändring.

Referenser och vidare läsning

De verk som refereras här kommer från författare och traditioner som på olika sätt har format nordiska reflektioner kring ansvar, omsorg och de osynliga krafter som bär vardagens liv.

Viktor Rydberg – Tomten
• Svensk originaltext av dikten samt engelska översättningar

Astrid Lindgren – Tomten och räven
• Presentation och bakgrund
https://www.astridlindgren.com/se/raven-och-tomten-900172
• Tomten är vaken – Astrid Lindgren
https://www.astridlindgren.com/se/tomten-ar-vaken-104996

Film & musik
• Räven och Tomten sång – Peter Jöback & Moonica Mac (sång)

• Räven och Tomten – SVT Barn

Den skandinaviska tomten
• Wikipedia – Tomte

Santa Claus / Father Christmas (engelska)
• History Today – How Father Christmas Found His Reindeer

Traditionen med gröten till Tomten (engelska)
• Ice Cream Nation – Swedish Yule Rice

Konstnärliga referenser – Novisali
• Eyes Woven with Time – Guardians of the Invisible Thread

• En gåva av närvaro / A Gift of Presence

• Sparks of Hope Exhibition and Finissage

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post was is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post Santa & Unanswered Questions /Tomten & obesvarade frågor first appeared on Novisali.

There are moments when nature feels like it is painting itself — silently, without pigment or brush.

A cactus spine crossing another, the spiral of a pine cone, the clustered rhythm of tiny leaves pushing toward the light. Each is an act of composition, an unconscious art that predates us.

In these forms, abstraction is not invention but revelation. The cactus arranges its spines in a geometry of defense and elegance — a living architecture of necessity. The pine cone folds inward and outward, spiraling according to mathematical principles it never studied. The carpet of small green stems interlaces into a quiet complexity, both ordered and wild.

These photographs, also featured in Novisali’s weekly reflection on photography and composition, invite us to notice nature’s way of composing — not by design, but by deep intention. The lens isolates, yet it also listens. Each frame becomes both mirror and metaphor, capturing the tactile truth of the world while revealing its inner abstraction.

Nature as the Original Abstract Artist

Look closely, and every natural form dissolves into geometry and pattern.

The cactus becomes a network of tension; the pine cone, a spiral of coded repetition; the ground cover, a fractal of resilience. Nature is the ultimate abstractionist — it creates through rhythm, proportion, and transformation.

When we paint, photograph, or sculpt these forms, we don’t imitate nature; we extend its language. Every brushstroke, every exposure, every act of noticing becomes a continuation of its endless experiment in form and balance.

This search for the abstract within the natural connects you with a long lineage of Nordic artists who saw nature not merely as subject, but as structure and consciousness.

Hilma af Klint, for instance, translated the geometry of flowers, shells, and spirals into symbolic diagrams of life and spirit. Her work reveals the invisible architecture of growth and energy — a way of painting what the eye cannot see but the soul can sense. Her legacy is also echoed in Hilma and Engla, where the language of art becomes a conversation across time and realms.

In a more contemporary way, Olafur Eliasson continues this dialogue through installations that transform natural phenomena — light, ice, mist, reflection — into immersive experiences of perception. His works remind us that we are not observers of nature but participants in its unfolding abstractions.

Both Hilma and Olafur embody a distinctly Nordic sensitivity to nature — one rooted in light, silence, and transformation — where abstraction becomes a bridge between the physical and the metaphysical.

The 2025 Nobel Prizes — Revealing the Hidden Structures of Life

The 2025 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Medicine offer profound reminders of this same creative logic — that both art and science are acts of seeing the invisible.

In Chemistry, Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi were honored for developing metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) — crystalline architectures capable of capturing gases, filtering water, and creating porous spaces where molecular life unfolds. They design materials that breathe, expanding the boundaries of what structure can mean.

Read more on Reuters

In Physiology or Medicine, Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi revealed how the immune system sustains balance through regulatory T cells — cells that restrain the body’s own defenses, maintaining tolerance amid complexity. They showed that life depends not only on action, but on discernment and pause.

Read more on The Guardian

As someone from a country that shares in the proud tradition of the Nobel legacy, these announcements resonate even more deeply. The prizes are not only a celebration of discovery — they are a reminder of how human imagination and inquiry transcend borders. From Stockholm to Kyoto, from laboratories to art studios, they reflect the same universal impulse: to seek patterns in complexity, to understand life through both rigor and wonder.

Both discoveries illuminate a shared truth: the essence of life is not chaos but organized fluidity — the same pulse that animates a tree’s growth or an artist’s intuition. Both science and art unveil the invisible architectures through which nature holds itself together.

You can explore the full list of laureates and announcements on the Official Nobel Prize website.

Why These Nobel Prizes Matter

Beyond their technical brilliance, these Nobel Prizes remind us why understanding matters:

• They reveal invisible architectures.
  MOFs and immune networks make tangible the unseen: the geometry of emptiness, the choreography of balance.
• They unite precision and imagination.
  Each discovery required the courage to imagine patterns beyond visibility — a union of artistry and logic that drives both invention and art.
• They teach balance as survival.
  The immune system’s restraint and the molecular framework’s openness echo a universal truth — that resilience is born from equilibrium, not excess.
• They reconnect us to the intelligence of nature.
  These laureates don’t conquer nature; they listen to it, learning from its patterns and harmonies — much as an artist listens to the rhythm of light and form.
• They restore wonder.
  In revealing structure within the invisible, they remind us that mystery is not the opposite of knowledge — it is its foundation.

Echoes in Art — From Molecules to Guardians

At the “Animal Guardians” exhibition at ART MUC, these themes take on symbolic form.

The sculptures and paintings there explore the sacred relationship between humanity and the natural world. Each animal form — abstracted, spiritual, protective — mirrors the same underlying geometry of life that science seeks to decode.

Placed in dialogue with your nature photographs and Novisali’s reflections, the exhibition becomes part of a larger composition — a continuum between observation, creation, and connection. Whether through pigment, pattern, or cell, we are always in conversation with the living order that sustains us.

Closing Reflection — The Pulse Beneath All Forms

To observe a cactus spine, a pine cone, or a small weave of leaves is to glimpse the same principles that govern galaxies and immune cells.

Nature’s wisdom lies not in its objects, but in its relationships — the subtle negotiations of tension and release, density and void, action and restraint.

Art and science, when at their best, are not separate languages but two dialects of the same conversation: one emotional, one analytical — both profoundly human.

They remind us that abstraction is not distance from the real, but intimacy with its essence.

To create, to observe, or to understand is to touch the same pulse — the quiet rhythm by which nature abstracts itself into being..

And perhaps the truest question that remains is this: When we look closely enough — through the microscope, the lens, or the soul — do we find nature abstracting itself, or do we find ourselves reflected within it?

References and Further Reading

• Novisali – Echoes of Silhouettes in Presence (Photography and Composition Reflection)
• Nobel Prize in Medicine 2025 – The Guardian
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 – Reuters
• All Nobel Prizes 2025 – Official Nobel Prize Website
• ART MUC – Animal Guardians Exhibition

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post When Nature Abstracts Itself first appeared on Novisali.

Carrying Forward Jane Goodall’s Call to Hope

There are rare people whose presence becomes a guiding light. They remind us that wisdom is more than knowledge, that true leadership holds both compassion and courage, and that wonder itself can be a form of responsibility.

Jane Goodall was such a light — moving through the world with a quiet strength that invited us to see nature not as resource, but as a living community we belong to.

Long before she became the world’s wisest voice for Earth, she sat alone in a forest at the age of twenty-four and wrote to her family of being “filled with gratitude and awe,” sensing “something greater than us” in the silence between birdsong, in the shafts of light through the leaves. That moment of humility and wonder stayed with her always.

Decades later, she gave us The Book of Hope — not a manifesto of certainty, but a call: to act, to care, and above all, to keep alive what she called “that still, small voice of possibility.” Hope, for Goodall, was not a passive state but a form of courage — the daily practice of working, in small ways and large, toward the future we long to see.

She showed us that real wisdom comes from marrying head and heart: intelligence tethered to compassion, foresight yoked to reverence. She warned that growth without limits is a dangerous illusion, urging us to think in lifetimes, not quarters; to make decisions that serve not just ourselves, but generations yet unborn. She called us to shift our loyalty from economy to ecosystem, from selfish gain to shared flourishing.

Goodall also embodied what the Marginalian beautifully called a “conviviality between art and nature” — moving through the world in a spirit attuned to both the creaturely and the cosmic. She carried an aesthetic sensibility, a recognition that beauty, wonder, and reverence are not luxuries, but essential ways of knowing — as vital as data or analysis.

She has been one of my greatest inspirations. Her life’s work and her deep sense of wonder in the natural world are woven into my own creative path. My art series Hopepunk and Eyes Woven in Time were born from the very themes she embodied — radical optimism, guardianship, and the fragile strength of the living world. Through them, I have sought to echo her reminder that hope is not passive, but an act of defiance and care.

THE HOPE movie, by National Geographic, illustrates how one woman’s passion for wildlife and unshakable drive have persevered and set an example for future generations;

In recalling her letter as a young woman, and her Book of Hope in later life, the arc of her story feels prophetic: she never abandoned that first awe. She deepened it, turned it into resolve, and offered it to us as guidance. To honor her is not only to remember what she gave, but to recommit — to learning, to caring, to hope as a living verb.

As we carry her memory forward, may we also guard her legacy: to listen, to imagine, and to act — for all our species, and for the wild Earth that held her.

References

• Jane Goodall & Douglas Abrams, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (2021)
• Jane Goodall, Africa in my Blood – Autobiogrpahy (2001)
• Maria Popova, “Jane Goodall on the Meaning of Wisdom and the Deepest Truths,” The Marginalian, (2021)
• Jane Goodall Institute – janegoodall.org

Shared Guardianship

What begins as quiet reflection will take form in public space this October 10–13, 2025, at Art Fair ARTMUC Munich, where Novisali’s guardians — the Fox, Bear, Eagle, and Hedgehog — will be presented with Galeria Gaudi.

These guardians are not only symbols; they remind us of our bond with the living world. They are ours — part of our stories, our imagination, our belonging. And in turn, we are called to be theirs — to care, to protect, to keep alive the fragile threads that connect us.

As visitors gather, light, distance, and presence transform the guardians into shared experience. What begins as an inward reflection may unfold into a discovery carried together — a reminder that guardianship flows both ways, and that in honoring them, we also honor ourselves and the Earth we share. Read more about the Novisali at ARTMUC Exhibition

Related Stories

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post Shared Guardianship first appeared on Novisali.

We meet them everywhere—
in the spiral of a shell,
the rhythm of footsteps,
the geometry of a window.

They whisper of hidden order,
yet invite us to break and reshape them.
Perhaps that’s where beauty begins—
between the repetition and the surprise.

Nature-Inspired Patterns

Look closely at the natural world and you’ll see that it’s built on repetition and rhythm. Spirals unfurl in seashells, sunflowers, and pinecones, echoing the same geometry we find in swirling galaxies. Fractals shape the branching of trees, the veins of leaves, and even the network of rivers seen from above.

Mathematicians call it the Fibonacci sequence, a numerical rhythm where each number is the sum of the two before. Designers and architects have long borrowed this sequence to create harmony that feels both intentional and organic.

Perhaps we’re drawn to these forms because they echo a hidden order of the universe, reminding us that beauty often lies in repetition dressed in endless variation.

Patterns in Human Creativity

Just as nature repeats, so too does human creativity. Textiles reveal centuries-old weaves of rhythm and motif. Architecture rests on repeated arches, columns, and lattices. Music, too, is a play of recurring notes and pauses, where repetition creates harmony and variation adds life.

Across cultures, patterns are visual languages. In Islamic art, geometric designs honor infinity and balance. African weaving carries stories and heritage within its repeating motifs. Nordic folk designs transform simple stitches into snowflake-like forms passed down through generations.

It leads us to wonder: do patterns connect us across cultures more than we realize?

Forms as Symbols

Beyond their beauty, forms carry meaning. A circle suggests wholeness and eternity. A triangle stands for stability or the sacred. A spiral embodies growth, evolution, and journey.

Artists and thinkers have long relied on these shapes to explore profound ideas. Kandinsky saw shapes as vessels of emotion and spiritual resonance. Hilma af Klint used spirals and abstract geometry to express mystical truths. The Bauhaus movement reduced design to circles, squares, and triangles—believing that simplicity could convey universality.

Forms, it seems, are not only seen but also felt.

Breaking the Pattern

Yet there comes a moment when patterns become predictable, even confining. Innovation often arises not from repeating, but from breaking.

Think of the beauty in cracked pottery, where the imperfection becomes the focal point. Or in irregular brushstrokes, where chaos interrupts harmony. Jazz musicians thrive on improvisation—playing with the pattern until it transforms into something unrepeatable.

Sometimes the beauty lies not in the form, but in the fracture.

Patterns Through My Lens 

As part of my weekly photography and composition practice, I set out to capture a catch of intriguing patterns and forms. These moments, discovered almost by chance, reveal how much rhythm and surprise surrounds us when we look closely.

Torsplan – (picture 1) Even in something as ordinary as the design of a tower entrance and its intercom, I found rhythm and repetition. These small discoveries remind me that patterns are everywhere, not just in grand designs, but also in thresholds we pass each day.

Helix Tower, 16th floor and Helix Art Place – (picture 2) By happy accident, we entered a closed exhibition by Jesper Blom. His art filled the space with surprise, especially a painted window depicting a Swedish-Indian version of midsummer, framed by a view over the Karolinska area. From above, I also noticed the running track hidden on a rooftop—a pattern of movement stitched into the cityscape.

Forskaren, seen from Park Norra stationsparken – (picture 3) The large leaf and plant sculptures caught my attention. Both playful and monumental, they form a sheltering canopy for a seating area, reminding me that patterns in architecture can invite rest as well as admiration.

Karolinska Institutet, Aula Medica foyer – (picture 4) A digital waterfall, Falling Water, flows against a starry installation of 95 hand-cut crystal cones by professor Ingegerd Råman. Through my lens, the movement of water and the geometry of light became a dialogue between nature and design.

Through this weekly lens, I’ve come to see patterns as both a personal practice and a universal language—a way of noticing the world that deepens my creativity and connection.

An Invitation to Notice

Patterns and forms aren’t just distant concepts—they live in our daily lives. The way light casts through a window at a certain hour. The routes we unconsciously walk each day. The rhythm of conversation with a friend.

I invite you to notice these patterns. Photograph them, sketch them, or simply pause to recognize them. In doing so, you may discover that life itself is a canvas of repetition and surprise, a dance of forms waiting to be seen.

Closing Thought

Patterns and forms are more than shapes and structures—they are the hidden language around us. They remind us that we live within a universe of rhythm, resonance, and renewal. And perhaps the truest art is to notice them, honor them, and sometimes, dare to break them.

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post Patterns and Forms: The Hidden Language Around Us first appeared on Novisali.

On 12 August 2025, the dawn sky carried a rare story.
Two of our brightest wandering stars – Venus, the herald of morning and evening, and Jupiter, the gentle giant with the sky as his throne – stood side by side.
Their light merged, as if the night itself were holding its breath. And the phenomena is still visible over the following days.

For the astronomer, it was a perfect line of sight: two planets in the same field, moons like small companions circling Jupiter.
For the passerby who simply happened to look up, it became something else – a whisper that certain meetings can change everything. 

An Echo from the Ancient Skies

Humanity has always read stories in the script of the stars.
More than two and a half millennia ago, Babylonian scribes carved into the Enuma Anu Enlil that Venus and Jupiter had drawn close – and that it meant something for kings and kingdoms.

In the myths of Greece and Rome, they met as goddess and god-king: she with the gifts of love and beauty, he with the weight of power and wisdom. When they shared the sky, it became an image of union between passion and leadership, between the beat of the heart and the grand designs of the world.

The Glow of Symbolism

In all eras, Venus has carried the light of relationships and creation, while Jupiter has shone with the radiance of expansion, fortune, and wisdom.

When they stand close in the heavens, it has been seen as a moment of harmony – where heart and mind walk hand in hand.
Historically, bright conjunctions have been read as the sky’s own harbingers, signs that change is on the way.
Perhaps that is why we pause, why our gaze lingers: because it reminds us that sometimes beauty and meaning meet in the same moment.

This meeting of Venus and Jupiter also echoes ancient esoteric traditions, such as those of the Rosicrucian Order, which for centuries has woven celestial symbols into its teachings. In their allegories, Venus embodies love and beauty, while Jupiter represents wisdom and expansive vision. Their conjunction was seen as a sign of harmony between the heart’s compassion and the mind’s higher understanding — a moment when the visible heavens mirror an inner alignment. 

In this light, the August dawn was not only an astronomical event, but also an invitation to an age-old journey: the search for unity between our earthly selves and our highest potential.

A Poetic Witness from 1831

Even in the 19th century, their meeting caught the eyes of poets.
William Cullen Bryant wrote in The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus (1831):

Look, even now,
how two bright planets meet in twilight,
upon the saffron heaven – the imperial star
of Jove, and she who from her radiant urn
pours out the light of love. Let me believe,
for a while, that they have met for ends of good,
amid the evening’s glory, to confer
of humankind and their affairs,
and to shed down kind influence.

He captures not only the visual, but also the dreaming interpretation of what their meeting might mean.

Later in the poem, he invites us to dwell in the moment:

Let us set aside
dark and sorrowful thoughts for a while – there is time for them
later – tomorrow we may meet
with melancholy looks, to tell our griefs
and make each other wretched; this calm hour,
this mild, blessed evening, we will give
to bright hopes and dreams of happy days,
born of the meeting of those glorious stars.

Bryant captures what we still feel: how stillness deepens beauty, how light becomes presence.

Love, Wisdom, and the Alchemy of the In-Between

In esoteric traditions, including the Rosicrucian Order, Venus and Jupiter are more than celestial bodies — they are archetypes. Venus embodies love, beauty, and the creative spark; Jupiter represents wisdom, expansive vision, and the guiding force of higher purpose. Their meeting in the sky is seen as an alchemical marriage — the union of heart and mind, beauty and truth, compassion and understanding.

This union unfolds in what mystics call a sacred interval — a transformative space in between. In alchemy, this is the stage where opposites pause, purify, and prepare to merge into something greater than either could be alone. In Japanese aesthetics, it echoes the principle of Ma, the fertile stillness where meaning is born.

Moments like the August 2025 conjunction are an invitation — not only to look up, but to look within. They ask us to notice the alignments in our own lives: the rare times when our deepest values meet our clearest vision, when we feel both grounded and expansive. Just as two lights meet in the sky, we can let such moments kindle a light within us — one that guides our next steps on the journey toward our highest potential.

The Space In Between – A Bridge to Art

In my own artistic work, especially in the exhibition Unlocking Potential in the Space In Between, from October 2024, I explore the quiet thresholds between moments, where transformation quietly gathers.
The Venus–Jupiter conjunction is such a threshold – a brief alignment where two powerful forces meet not to compete, but to illuminate each other.

In Japanese aesthetics, there is the concept of Ma – the pause, the interval, the space between things where meaning is born.
The light of Venus and Jupiter in that August dawn was a perfect Ma in the sky: a stillness that held not emptiness, but possibility.

In an exhibition space, this could be mirrored through art that invites the viewer to linger in their own “in-between” – between thought and feeling, between knowing and discovering.

Two glowing orbs suspended in a room.
An ambient reading of Bryant’s poem, set against the hum of dawn.
A reflection table where visitors can write about the alignments in their own lives – their personal Venus–Jupiter moments.

The Sky as a Mirror

Perhaps this is what Venus and Jupiter are whispering to us:
That we, like them, sometimes have the chance to stand close to someone – or something – and that these moments can hold more than we first understand.
That the world grows richer when we look with curiosity, embrace the unexpected, and let both heart and vision guide our steps.

For when two lights meet in the sky, they can also kindle a light within us.
And perhaps that light is what we carry forward – into our lives, into our art, into the spaces in between.

More Moment when Eyes Woven in Time Exhibits

For more magical moments and encounters, you are warmly welcome to visit my art exhibition Eyes Woven in Time on 6–7 September during the Danderyd Art Tour. 

Inspired by;

Venus Jupiter Conjunction by Sky at Night Magazine
About our planets by NASA
About Enuma Any Enlil
Same as it ever was by Public Domain Review
About William Cullen Bryant
About William Cullen Bryants Poems by Gutenberg
About the Rosencreuz Order History
Bigert & Bergstroms artwork at Hallands Museum Summer of 2025 , and a photo from the visit;  

From earlier posts;

Unlocking the Potential in the Space in Between  
Moon through my lens creatively

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post When Venus Met Jupiter – and the Sky Spoke in Light first appeared on Novisali.

In our hyper-connected and often overwhelming world, it’s easy to feel an increasing disconnection from nature. Screens replace landscapes, and digital signals drown out the song of birds. Yet within us all lies a deep, often unconscious longing to reconnect—not to something new, but to an ancient harmony: a timeless kinship with the planet and all living things.

From Separation to Belonging

This is not about escaping reality, but about enriching it. When we become attentive observers, we see the world not as a backdrop to our lives, but as a complex, living web of which we are an inseparable part. To see in this way is a quiet yet heartfelt responsibility—an invitation to become guardians of what we love and wish to pass on.

Nature’s own stories are filled with ingenuity and resilience: a black woodpecker finding food deep within a tree, a beetle navigating by the stars. These moments remind us that problem-solving is not uniquely human, and that obstacles are a natural companion in all life. They also invite us to slow down, to shift from seeing nature as scenery to experiencing it as a teacher.

The key to this rediscovery is rarely found in grand expeditions or lengthy intellectual pursuits. It lives in the still moments—the flash of a fox’s tail disappearing into the undergrowth, the unwavering presence of an ancient oak, the tender gaze of a beloved animal. Here, in presence, blooms a deep, magnetic joy in simply being.

Throughout history, naturalists have shown us that animals carry an intelligence and secret knowledge we are only beginning to glimpse. Their memory, their foresight, their care—all speak of a rich inner life. This quiet wisdom is passed down like an invisible thread through generations, woven into the very fabric of time. To acknowledge this challenges human pride and opens us to a deeper reverence for other species—these invisible guardians of life’s cosmic pattern.

Finding our place in the wild is, at its heart, an act of de-selfing: stepping beyond our own worries and fears to attune to a greater rhythm—the rhythm of life itself. It is to love the simplicity of earthly existence and to find beauty in the delicate impermanence of all things. Here, in communion with nature, we find not only peace. We find an ineffable joy—a reminder of what it truly means to be alive.

Active Hope in a Living World

But in these times—when environmental loss and climate change are no longer distant warnings but lived realities—this communion must also become a foundation for hope. Not the vague, wishful kind of hope that waits for someone else to act, but an active, evidence-based hope: a hope grounded in what is real, in what is already working, and in our own capacity to contribute to change.

Nature itself offers the proof. Ecosystems do recover. Forests do regenerate. Species do return. When we look closely, we see that renewal is not an exception—it is the rule of life, repeated in countless forms. These “bright spots” anchor us, reminding us that decline is never the whole story.

Active hope invites us to work with the same principles nature has always used: adaptation, cooperation, persistence. It teaches us to face our fears without letting them harden into despair, to seek out stories of restoration and recovery, and to use our own strengths—whatever they may be—to protect and nurture what we love. It calls us to practice interspecies respect, recognizing agency not only in humans but in animals, plants, and ecosystems, and to lean on supportive communities when courage falters.

There are many dimensions to hope:

• Hope that sparks personal action—believing that what you do matters.
• Hope that fuels societal transformation—connecting awareness with agency to drive change at scale.
• Hope rooted in purpose, regardless of outcome—finding meaning in the act of care itself, even when the future is uncertain.

When we allow the wild to be our guide, these dimensions are not abstract ideals—they are lived realities. In a single migration, a flock of cranes embodies persistence against odds. In the cooperation of a coral reef, countless species create abundance through mutual care. In the regeneration of a burned forest, life returns in quiet, determined waves.

And perhaps most importantly, we can let nature—and the wild animals themselves—be our guardians. In their presence, we see living proof that resilience is possible, that cooperation is powerful, and that renewal is always within reach. From them, we learn to become more hopeful, more courageous, and more deeply alive—carrying their quiet wisdom into how we live, lead, and care for the world.

If we follow their example, our hope will not be a fragile flame easily extinguished, but a living, breathing force—rooted in evidence, sustained by community, and strengthened by our shared belonging to this intricate, astonishing web of life.

In Practice: Weaving Our Own Threads

Hope becomes real when we give it shape in our daily lives. The threads we weave—through choices, rituals, and relationships—become part of a larger tapestry that connects us to the living world.

• Pause and observe: Let the patterns of the natural world anchor your attention—the slow unfurling of a fern, the watchful gaze of a bird, the tide’s steady return.
• Remember and imagine: Keep alive the threads you’ve inherited from those who came before, and spin new ones with care—visions of a world in which both humans and wild places thrive.
• Guard with intention: Be the quiet protector of what matters most, acting not out of fear of loss, but from love for what endures.
• Take guidance from your invisible wild guardian: Imagine the animal whose presence you carry with you—a lynx, an owl, a reindeer—letting its instincts, patience, or courage guide your choices when the path ahead feels uncertain.

By practicing in this way, we join the long lineage of guardians—human and more-than-human—who keep life’s web strong.

References

Archives of joy: Reflections on Animals and the Nature of Being
Jane Goodall Institute
Jane Goodall Hopecast
The lost spells: A Rewilding of the Human Heart in a lyrical illustrated invocation of Nature 
How to be Hopeful
The Second Transition podcast – Episode Hopepunk
How to be a happier creature

Art Exhibition – Eyes Woven in Time (Vakande Blickar)

On September 6–7, during the Danderyd Art Trail, you are invited to step into Eyes Woven in Time—a visual journey by Novisali where wild Nordic animals emerge as invisible guardians.

Through layered watercolor and digital transformation, lynx, owls, bears, and reindeer watch quietly from between the worlds, holding time and memory in their gaze. These artworks are an invitation to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with the deeper rhythms of nature—where time, wisdom, and wonder meet in the space between brushstroke and imagination.

Every piece carries its own whisper: a reminder that we are part of something larger, more ancient, and more resilient than we often remember. The works are brought to life on eco-conscious materials—reusable aluminum, natural silk, and plant-based faux suede—merging art with a commitment to the planet they celebrate.

Full program of Danderyds Art Trail: www.danderydskonstrunda.se
Artist digital map: https://lnkd.in/d-qEUqNC
More about the Novisali exhibition: https://bit.ly/3IQ3Db0

Earlier related Stories

About Novisali 

Novisali, (alias Liselotte Engstam), is besides her roles as professional board member and advisor, a multi-media artist, with a curious, explorative mind and an ambition to learn and extend art experiences to current and new audiences using both traditional and new digital mediums. More information and exhibitions can be found via Novisali.com

This blog post is also shared at the blog of www.liselotteengstam.com, with the artist name Novisali.

The post Finding Our Place in the Wild first appeared on Novisali.