12-24-18
This time last year my wife and I were getting prepared for our honeymoon. We had the bright idea to go to Iceland to celebrate our nuptials. Constantly, we had been met with perplexed looks of disbelief when we would tell people about our plans. We were supposed to go somewhere tropical, somewhere sunny. Alas, we did not, but we did, in fact, wear our bathing suits nearly every day.
Driving through the barren landscape of Iceland we were always chasing the little light the graced the skies. When the sun was up it was in a perpetual state that made it look as if it was always setting for the 4ish hours it may be out. This created a mesmerizing shadow over everything as the light was pulled in new ways…if you’ve ever seen a flower stretch towards the sun, imagine an entire mountain appear to do the same.
I have had an intense developing relationship with the celestial forms that guide our daily lives. I’ve had an appreciation for them all throughout my life, I am human, it’s hard to imagine not having some appreciation; however, over the last ten years or so I have been able to develop a relationship of strong reverence with both the sun and moon. Being from the desert I have become very familiar with the sun’s power and its strength, it felt like I was finally able to observe the antithesis to this extreme I have become so used too. This extreme was made even more powerful when taken into consideration that Iceland experiences the inverse on summer solstice with 24 hours of sunlight.
Iceland is a land of extremes, I suppose this helps build its mystical personality. We were constantly in appreciation of the reverence placed on the land and the lore it holds. It’s a land that has chosen not to purely pave over its ancestral stories to make way for whatever new development may be underway. The forces of the unseen are intimately woven into daily lives, and with that, a deeper appreciation for the supernatural seemed to be at play as well.
One of the first times I heard this song was as we were driving over a snow-covered hill, as we made our way to its crest, the sun broke through a pair of glacial mountains creating a white reflection. There was nothing else at that moment, but a serene image that could not be captured only witnessed.
Lyrics:
The sun is white tonight, tomorrow it will be red and bright in ardent stillness
An ocean wave is welcoming, yet it is carrying all of my sins and all my troubles
Hey hey, where were they hiding, the seabirds that return in the summer tide?
Hey hey where were they hiding, all my loving, giving, receiving?
When they’re back I’ll continue my straying
There are no days, there never is night in the icy lands of eternal, ceaseless calmness
How many until you’ll stand here sharing the weightlessness of the island’s intense wonders?
Hush now soon they will fly in, the tern that I left with my reverie
Hush now, there’s one that is crying, both its wings bear other birds’ sorrows
When they’re back I’ll continue my straying
The sun is white and steadily bright in the land of tinder and ice in ardent silence
Hold on tight to our vision
The one that we’ve carried for so long
And soon we’ll feed the fire doubled heartbeats sooth our souls’ needs
Stillness feeds our united bodies