LAND OF FIRE & ICE
The air is still. I am still. My breathing slows. Everything seems to be stopped for this moment in time. It's quiet. Not silent. The wind whispers secrets of people and places long ago. I can hear the waves crest, crash, and gently trickle over my toes. And as the water recedes, my feet sink slightly deeper into the sand. My spirit sinks slightly deeper into peace. It's the most natural peace I've known. It's a peace I try to recall when I close my eyes, but will only ever fully experience again if I journey back to the place where I first found it; in the land of fire and ice.
Do you ever have one of those moments? You know the kind, the ones that become "THE MOMENT". A moment of inspiration or discovery that utterly and completely changes your life-course. It’s the defining moment. It's not usually a moment we can control, anticipate, or recreate, but only see clearly in hindsight. It's not a moment you search for, but one that finds you when the time and place have come together in perfect synchrony. It’s unmistakable. Unforgettable.
I had my moment last summer...
It wasn't a singular moment, but a combination of events that culminated into a revelation.
I was unexpectedly invited to fill a seat on a trip to Iceland. Now, Iceland was no doubt a place I had seen and heard tales of frequently, but not a place I imagined visiting any time soon. I weighed the cost of leaving my business unattended for over a week with the reward of visiting a place that appeared to be of another world. Based on the writing of this blog, I'll let you guess which option I chose. A month later, I was flying to Iceland.
I could retell the entire trip move-for-move because every inch of Iceland was a treasure. The glaciers, waterfalls, black sand beaches, basalt columns, jagged peaks, turquoise water, flaming sunsets...It was the most magnificent and magical place I've seen, heard, smelled, and touched. But there's one moment that is burned into every fiber of my being.
Put on your hiking boots, rain pants and jacket, and follow me for a minute.
We are standing in a small field, nothing special, simply grass and dirt. A couple hundred feet in front of us stands a cliff face, jutting straight up. It's vibrant green grass and dull brown rock stand against a pristine blue sky with a few puffy clouds painted in. It's a beautiful sight on its own, but there's something else. There's a faint hissing sound. It could almost be mistaken as wind passing by, but this...this sound has more weight to it. As we follow it's apparent origin, it slowly grows deeper and more prominent, until it's source is nigh mistakable. It's a waterfall, but, there's none in sight. A stream to our left flows gracefully from a slit in the rock wall.
You have your boots on right?
As we follow the stream we reach the mouth of the crevice, and are sprinkled with a faint mist. It's cool and quite refreshing. As we hop along the slick rocks peppering the stream bed into the small canyon, the light fades as the roar of the waterfall is brought to bear. There it is! As though a giant hiding among trees, the glorious Gljúfrafoss, the "one who lives in the canyon", confronts us full force. Water droplets are whipping to and fro, confined and amplified by the small space in the canyon.
Like a spellbound lover, we stare at this hidden force of nature. We can't help but draw closer, each footstep carefully chosen, but eyes held fast on the cascading falls. Every step is increasingly difficult. We are being pushed back by the constant breath of the falls crashing into the stream bed.
Welcome to my moment.
There I stand, inhaling life so deeply I can barely breathe. And yet, I gasp for more. Can there be more?
That moment is THE MOMENT. I realized that the one thing I truly desire in life is to chase opportunities. Any opportunity that comes my way, I will take, no matter what must be done to pursue it. If I am chasing one opportunity and another arises, I will chase both simultaneously until one wins out over the other. I may chase an opportunity for a day or a century, it doesn't really matter. What matters are the things I discover about myself through those opportunities.
Like the ability to stand motionless, letting time drift out to sea with the current.
Or the immense joy from simply feeding grass to a wild horse as its lips tickle your hand and it seemingly winks at you while munching on the gift it was given.
You find your amazement reignited by sunsets while watching one that lasts for hours, because you never noticed they can change so many different colors.
You realize that nature is the greatest form of entertainment. From bathing in natural hot springs to holding glacial diamonds. Viewing puffins so vividly colorful they appear to be toys and reindeer that you've only ever heard about in Christmas carols. Watching geysers explode into the sky as they shake the ground you stand on and standing in underground volcanic shafts larger and longer than any road tunnel you've ever driven through.
I don't want to grow old and miss any of those "moments" because I was too busy being comfortable. And Iceland showed me just what is possible when you chase opportunities. I didn't just discover a beautiful place in Iceland, I discovered myself, there, standing in awe under that hidden waterfall.
Will you take the next opportunity?
