WHAT IS THE ZERO SEVENTEEN PROJECT?
After close to a decade of musical silence along with some really dark years in my life, something was awakened in the end of spring 2020 and started to grow within me again. During the years of silence life has taken me on a journey I wish no one would have to go through. Earlier in life this was a path I never could have imagined would be mine. Many times over the years I thought that I at least should have used the pain, grief, anger and doubt to write some new music. And yeah, I tried, but it never became more than some forced attempts.
After my youngest daughter was born in 2010, I collapsed. It had been a long time of too much work combined with too much stress and pressure in multiple areas of my life. There and then my struggle with physical and mental health issues began for real. A few years later the ground cracked open under the feet of our family when our middle daughter was diagnosed with Diabetes type 1 and we were completely wrecked. A year of constant stress, fear and sleepless nights checking blood sugar levels resulted in two parents diagnosed with exhaustion. We both desperately tried to hold our family of five together but along with a lot of other relational tests and trials, it all together slowly eroded the foundation of our marriage vows. Three years later the divorce smashed into pieces what still was left of our little family. In the fall of Zero Seventeen I fell deeper than I thought was possible and finally reached rock bottom. It felt like everything I’d built my life, my faith and my world upon disappeared in a black hole under my feet, leaving me broken, alone and angry. I was devastated over everything I’d lost but the anger stood in the way of my tears and it took me over a year before I could cry again.
Three years have passed since then. Three hard years of struggling, trying to find, not a way back, but a new way forward. It has been a journey trying to figure out who I am and what I’ve become after all that’s happened, but I sure have learned a lot about myself and life through these years.
I am at a better place now. Still fragile, a little scared and the road ahead isn’t always clear. But I’m doing better. Giving wings to this project has given me so much joy, energy and creativity and for that I’m so thankful.
THE ZERO SEVENTEEN PROJECT is not only about me trying to leave the darkest decade of my life behind me. It’s a “lifeshare-moment” which is a way of sharing experiences, helping each other to rise above the circumstances in life that try to keep us down. I wanna share my life and my stories with you through my songs and through this project. But my hope and prayer is that you want to share your story, too. In these times we live in, we need each other more than ever. We need to hear how other people pulled through, how they found a new way forward or what helped them find a light in the darkness. We all need that as motivation and support when our own situation seems hopeless and we stumble in our darkness or hit the bottom. Share your story by sending an email to my017@zeroseventeenproject.com or by using the hashtags #myzeroseventeen or #my017 when posting on social medias. As my oldest daughter once said (she’s wiser than her dad sometimes:) – ”If my painful experiences can help somebody else, then my pain hasn’t been in vain”.
Our past is a part of our history, none of us can change that. But it’s a decision, up to each one of us to make, not to get stuck there and let our past define our future.
Welcome to share my world through THE ZERO SEVENTEEN PROJECT
The best is yet to come – I know it!
I’ve decided to make this project available for everyone for free. If you wanna help expand it, you can add your support by clicking the button below and give a donation via PayPal or Swish (123 573 12 94).