New Year, New Ideas

So much is always happening. In the latest turn of events, I’m opening a gallery in a few weeks. I came to Iceland in March of 2023 with the goal of living in the middle of nowhere and opening an art gallery. Things didn’t go as planned. I became miserable and was forced to learn what the meaning of life really is. Then, I spent two years finding myself. And now, in just a few weeks, I’m actually achieving my highest goal in life: I’m opening an art gallery.

But let me not get too far ahead of myself — I’m still waiting for the lease to sign. Regardless, I never imagined I would reach this point. I have amazing partners in my mad endeavors now, both friends and the love of my life. With that comes bountiful opportunity and rich experience. Last week, for example, a completely random encounter in November led to my new circle going to an artist’s house in Mosfellsbær to read my poetry book and do some storytelling. That was an incredibly beautiful experience of its own; I met yet more incredibly wonderful people.

I had three days of Christmas and then New Year’s last night with my partner and her family. The year before that, I was working. The year before that, I was entirely alone in my apartment with nothing and nobody. Now, I enter 2026 with a world more rich than I could have ever wished for.

To top it all off, I found an old, broken, dirty, cheap electric piano at a garage sale. I have a musician friend who went with me, and we bought it for 4,000kr. We took it to my office, took it apart, cleaned it, repaired it, put it back together, and got a beautiful instrument for next to nothing. I’ve been practicing as much as I can, learning the joys of making music. I played the drums when I was in elementary school, but I always hated it because it wasn’t something I wanted to do. Now, I have quite the passion for music, and I plan on starting some musical endeavors as soon as another instrument I ordered arrives in two weeks.

My 2026 is starting with me doing all the things I wanted to do, from getting back into reading and writing, to walking around, to simply doing fun things. Yesterday, I met with my two friends helping with the gallery, and everything is looking amazing.

Of course, not everything is perfect. Some things aren’t for writing about. There have been some deep, heavy downs mixed in with all the beauty. But it all works out in the end. A result of one such situation was me going for a walk in my favorite park for many hours. I couldn’t really think, as much as I wanted to, but my numb and empty mind churned away as best as it could. Whenever I’m in nature, everything else going on seems so meaningless. What’s the point of worry or concern?

We must trudge onward into an endless darkness with neither knowledge nor purpose. It is what is expected of us: what we all must do. It is our duty in the dark unknown to hallucinate beautiful things rather than terrors.

I have many ideas for what I want to write about next. My writing group is dead yet again. I try and try, but I’m done with that now. I’ll just write on my own and make a habit of it for the sake of self-motivation. I’m looking forward to realizing these ideas — or at least trying to. There isn’t much more to express. The positive feeling is still there: that everything will be great.

In other news, I sold my first ever picture at the Christmas market.