No Hallgrimskirkja interior this morning. I suspected there might be mass and…there was. Ah well.
Today looked like the weather would not cooperate with the travel plans, but it did! Here are some impressions of the experience of driving southeast on the 1:
The flight to Iceland was awesome. Iceland Air gives their clients all the little touches that put them miles ahead of other competing airlines: free wifi, movies, music, travel documentaries, several complimentary non-alcoholic drinks, blankets and pillows, footrests, extra legroom, and aurora borealis led panels gently lighting the plane’s interior. Their airport is equally well thought out. The car rental process was relatively painless. All good. Now what to do at 6AM?
Even though most of the passengers, including myself, hadn’t slept much during the flight, I thought it would be great to soak away the pains of too long a time in one position. Off to the Blue Lagoon it was! Driving in a unfamiliar country can be a little intimidating at first, especially as you learn what the different traffic signs mean and acclimate to kilometers per hour versus miles per hour. Even with studded tires, four wheel drive, and cautious driving, I nearly slid off the road at one point. Black ice—definitely not fun stuff.Continue Reading
It recently struck me how the goals that seemed so vital a number of years ago are no longer quite the same and, in some cases, are no longer relevant at all. Friends are experiencing similar processes and we are assured by adults decades older than us that this kind of trial-and-error is normal, natural even, especially in an individual’s later twenties or early thirties. Yet trying to distill the essence of what you truly need to flourish on a core level is challenging—at least it has been for me.
A number of months ago, my father and I were discussing learning to enjoy the present moment, rather than rushing for an unnamed end result in some nebulous future. He used metaphor, explaining that life happens swimming between the ship and the shore. This image struck deep. Of course we have objectives we work to accomplish, but the majority of our time is spent in the sea, making our way through rough and calm waters into the unknown. So often in the past, I’ve thought something to the effect of, “I just have to achieve this goal because after that, life will really begin,” or “One day I’ll do ____, but can’t until ____ is finished.” But I’m already living and life has long since started. It’s simple and obvious, yet somehow took years to realize.
Perhaps Emily Dickinson best captures the outcome of that conversation with Dad:
Exultation is the going of an inland soul to sea, past the houses—past the headlands—into deep Eternity.
That’s where this website comes in. Notions of Change is a project of discovery—a journey, designed to explore areas of interest, share thoughts, show beauty, and perhaps even make the world a little bit better in the process. Now, not later. And maybe it will help me to crystallize the answers to those varied question marks that periodically crowd themselves inside my heart.
You knock at the door of reality, shake your thought-wings, loosen your shoulders,and open.
~ Rumi, The Gift of Water