We woke up this morning at 5 am having slept for 7 hours and feeling rested and excited to begin our explorations. Promptly at 8am, Turid came to escort us to our days activities. Turid is a kind, gentle, generous soul who gave us her full attention and never showed signs of tiring of our many questions.

We walked the short distance to the subway called the T. We took the T into the center of the city and enjoyed a brisk walk to the Nobel Institute.

Anne Kjelling, the Head Librarian of the Nobel Institute was our guide. She has worked for the Nobel Institure for 40 years and is the keeper of all the stories, all the history of the institute. Her generosity in spending time with us during one of the busiest weeks of the year for the Nobel Institute was quite remarkable. To begin, Anne took us to a room that she explained most people do not get to see. It is the room where the Norwegian Nobel Committee makes its decisions. A beautiful table was surrounded by 6 chairs, one for each of the 5 committee members and 1 for the secretary. The walls of this room hold the secrets of the meetings as no minutes are taken except for the minutes of their final decisions. Two of the 4 walls of the room are covered with photographs of the Nobel Peace Prize winners. As we browsed the photos, she answered our questions about each of the 12 women who have received the award since it was first awarded in 1901. She explained that there are some years that more than 1 person actually share the award. She shared that in 1973 a Vietnamese man, named Le Duc Tho, who was to receive the award with Henry Kissenger for jointly negotiating the Vietnam cease fire actually refused the award because Peace had not been achieved. We learned that Henry Kissenger eventually tried to return the award, but that the award cannot be returned once it is awarded. And we discovered that the institute does not give the award to angels, but to human beings. Some of the winners were actually at one time Terrorists, who when given the opportunity, changed their lives to impact the world towards peace. Anne explained that the Nobel Committee gives the Peace award not only to those who have already accomplished significant stides towards peace but that it also gives encouragement awards towards those who are creating a new vision, or inspiring in others a movement towards peace.

Next we visited the hall where the Nobel Committee makes the announcement each November of who they have chosen for that year’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Niko practiced coming out of the famous doors into the hall while givng a dignified wave to the crowds while Sam stood at the podium to practice his acceptance speech.

We moved from the hall into the room where copies of the original artwork for each Laureate are displayed. A different artist is chosen each year to do a painting for that year’s laureate. They are not, however, told who the laureate will be.

It was an absolute honor to spend our morning at the Nobel Institute with Anne. Standing in the Nobel Committee’s meeting room surrounded by the photographs of these Great Peacemakers, I was humbled, inspired, moved and very grateful. I prayed that this history lesson would move deeply into our bones and that we would move into our world with increased courage and commitment towards living our piece for peace in the world.