Adventures in Iceland: Part Two
^^ Listen to this song while you read :) ^^ Jónsi is an artist from Iceland.
Iceland, part deux. It still feels like a half-hazy dream, that whole week - fittingly, it was cloudy for most of the time we were there. Coupled with the epic landscape, it made for such a crazy "are we really here?" mentality.
I think a lot about how we can create the life we want to live. I've mentioned here that we've been meditating on "impossibly good things", watching for and minding those things that happen in our life *daily*. Big and small, we are aware of how the universe gives us positive signs and beautiful things to take in and that make our lives better.
More on that soon - back to how Iceland is so gorgeous. First of all, if you haven't gone to Iceland - go, even if only for a few days. There are SUPER cheap flights on Iceland Air! For those of you who LOVE the outdoors, you'll be able to stay forever and be happy. :) We rented a cute tiny cabin where we spent a few days after our friends went home to the states.
Now, I usually lean towards staying in a big room or bigger place whenever we travel - mostly because we work from home and I love a lot of natural light in a space that we are in. But y'all - this cabin was THE DREAM. It had EVERYTHING you could ever need in a tiny cabin, all of the amenities were new and sleek, and the hosts were SUPER comical in the way they outlined their "house rules and things to do in Iceland" packet. For example, you can drink the tap water in Iceland - it's actually some of the most clean tap water in the world - and our hosts said in our house rules packet that "buying bottled water is liking buying oxygen from the grocery store..." haha, LOVE IT!
Here is the Airbnb listing - if you want to stay in an incredible tiny cabin with amazing hosts, stay here. It's in the Golden Circle, so it's very close to a lot of the destinations you'll want to see, and there's great wifi. Haha, speaking of, we kept asking ourselves WHAT THE HECK IS THIS PLACE? Wifi on a remote island in the middle of the North Atlantic - it really just didn't make sense to me.
We started off each morning kind of in a daze, mostly because it was light most of the night. The night before we left, we witnessed the most insane morning/middle-of-the-night light we'd ever seen. It had been cloudy and rainy, like the photo above, for most of the week. That was totally fine for us, but witnessing such EPIC EPIC, I MEAN BOO BOO - IT WAS EPIC! - light, was such a treat. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 4:44AM and 30% awake, I thought to myself "ABE - YOU NEED TO FREAKING TAKE A PHOTO OF THIS SUN!" ... So, mostly asleep, I fumbled around in my backpack to get my camera and I definitely woke up Isaac and I snapped a few photos of the sun and then spent probably a minute (which felt like 10 because I was so tired) just SHOCKED at what I was seeing.
I've been feeling really really *really* grateful for EVERYTHING lately - my health, my husband, all of the trips we go on, growth, love, challenging myself, etc. And this was a moment I don't think I'll ever forget.
Have you ever seen an Icelandic horse? I hadn't before arriving to Iceland. We spent an afternoon riding horses throughout the countryside. I cried, again, out of joy and gratitude. I was riding a beautiful horse named Ófeigur, meaning "unstoppable/unbeatable/unkillable" and Isaac's horse was named Sonata, like the musical composition. It was a super rainy day, but while we were riding, the rain stopped and the temperature cooled just for us (impossibly good things) - it was magical.
We chatted the whole time with our guide, a beautiful young lady who grew up outside of Reykjavik. We talked about politics, the Icelandic culture, LGBTQ+ rights and norms in the country, education, travel and Icelandic horses. The fact that we can connect with humans from around the world is still so impressive and incredible to me. We hopped on a big metal bird and in 5 hours we were in a land that looked like nothing I've ever seen, and we had the opportunity to meet incredible humans like our guide.
We stopped at a little pub afterwards and enjoyed a salad and some wine. We were covered in gratitude. It was a good day.
I'm ending this post with that "impossibly good things" sentiment that we've been meditating on. We constantly think about our life and how to improve and experience all the goodness this world has to offer - from small details in our home, to epic landscapes like the ones we saw in Iceland, to simple tears of gratitude because gratitude is itself a thing to be grateful for. And I think that being *aware* of the good is the key to unlocking a life full of joy and love. It's really easy to focus on the negative and succumb to becoming pessimistic and hopeless. I won't live a life like that - I don't think my brain or soul will let me. We are intentional about living the best life we can live - from work to personal life, we want it to be GOOD, so we are aware of the good we are creating and the good the universe is bringing to us.
This summer has been a whirlwind, to be honest. Here's where we've been so far:
May: Wisconsin, Minnesota x2, Toronto, California
June: Chicago, Wisconsin
July: Chicago, Iceland, Nova Scotia, Montreal, Florida, The Caribbean, Honduras, Belize, Mexico
Upcoming August plans: California, St. Louis, Chicago
Life is busy and great and quiet and exploding with goodness. We are acutely aware of how blessed we are and how we want to live our life, every day. Thanks for joining us on our crazy journey - we love you.
With love,
Abe and Isaac
