The Vastness of Things

Time is easy to measure but hard to keep track of and rarely do we take the opportunity to become aware of its passing. Put simply, we are too absorbed in our lives to become cognizant of even our own existence; time needs to be accompanied by perspective for us to observe it with any great meaning.

Yesterday was the summer solstice—the longest day of the year, and one of many during which the sun never fully sets in Sweden.

366 days go, I had the idea to observe the darkest hour of the lightest day in the year. Knowing that I might never get to observe this again, it was engrained into my memory; the experience of watching the light fade to a dull roar in the eastern sky and then flare back as a multi-colored blast of rays, a cold night on which I contemplated what might come next in my constantly changing life.

On that day, I never would have thought that exactly one year later I would have left and returned to Göteborg to find myself standing on top of the same rock at Masthuggskyrkan along with some of my closest friends, together taking moments to observe the beauty of nature and acknowledge the slowly undulating, steady rhythm of life.

It is important to remember where we have been and what we have experienced before setting off again into the future. Though we may be responsible for our own actions, beyond us there are other forces existing which provide us with the opportunities that we either accept or leave behind. What happens after that is largely out of our control and we must learn to embrace the endless opportunities to choose our own paths once again, and walk confidently off into the unknown.