Balloons

A balloon tower rose over Austurvellir on Saturday, part of the Jónsvaka Midsummer Fesitval. For me, the fascination lay not just in how the breeze played with the ephemeral structure, but in how seemingly minute additions, in this case one small balloon at a time, over time, created it. It is the tiny moments, possibly considered inconsequential in themselves, that add depth to our histories by bridging the spaces between the more dramatic and defining events of our lives.

Pink

With all the words floating about in the ether, both spoken and written, words that inform, report, damage, debate, judge, describe, as well as those that thankfully admire, respect and heal, I think there is simply nothing much more to communicate than what this bloom signifies.

In the words of Tolle, "Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerge...[are like] messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless." 

Beyond language, beyond society and petty things, beyond even the human capacity to create, and recreate, a simple blossom says it all.

Sheep

As two major planets of great mass and affect move into the sign of the Ram for the first time in decades, it seems appropriate to display a very content ewe and her lamb, who posed for us at a farm just north of Reykjavik. This proud mother and her offspring are the latest in a long line of Icelandic ovis aries, whose history as a breed apart has mirrored that of people on this island and has, in all actuality, been the main reason for any human success this past millennia.

For more on the beast, read this Wikipedia article, and for anyone interested (visiting families with children, for example) a trip to this farm, named Hraðastaðir, in Mosfellsdalur can be arranged with a simple phone call to Nína at 820-1829.

Stream

These kiddies tryed to dam a stream with rocks and twigs and leaves but, as always, the cool water found a path of lesser resistance and flowed on...

Bliss

Today is a perfect day to follow our bliss, and to begin in the middle, where we stand, centering ourselves for the start of a new era. We turn our faces to the sun and, like children, bask in the beautiful and glistening now.

Flip

Sunday and Monday were perfect beach days here in Reykjavik, reminding me of childhood trips out to Asilomar and Lovers Point, the sands of Carmel and, in later years, Santa Cruz. In Northern California the ocean is cold, and spring/early summer excursions to the seaside demand just-in-case parkas and blankets and even cozy socks to cover up with when the winds pick up or the clouds shift over the sun. The same goes here, athough I'm not sure the water is quite as cold out there, Alaska current or no, as it is here: 8°C along the coastline.

Kids, though, run hot in general, and seem to hardly mind the chill waters. Adults who practice cold-water swimming here make the front page of papers for braving ten-minute health dips, while teens like my daughter Valentina, shown here, are doing back flips off a small cliff into the sea just for fun.

How easy it is to forget the simple joys of nature! Of riding a bike along an ocean path, of leaping off anything, into the sky, just for a thrill, of laughing joyfully while bundled against cold winds with friends, and of sitting on a quite rock near midnight, just miles below the arctic circle, and watching the golden sun set into a placid northern sea.

Award

Tripbase, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

Thank you, Tripbase : )