Trip Number Five

This time tomorrow, the plan is for me to be in Iceland. (Since I am flying, I have to say it’s my plan rather than a certainty. I won’t bore you with the twists and turns it took to get out of Houston to arrive in Raleigh to catch my Icelandair flight).

This is my fifth trip to Iceland.

Trip number one was right after the Tax Day flood. I had already booked my tickets when rising waters forced me from my home. Iceland was the perfect place to go and heal.

I booked my second trip a year and a half later, right after I’d moved back into my newly restored home. As God would have it (or not), I evacuated once again to Iceland when my home flooded a second time.

I was asked by my parish to never book a trip to Iceland again. My next two trips were short stays in Iceland on the way to and from the Faroe Islands. They were named “Not Iceland” to reduce parish anxiety of floods being tied to my trips abroad.

So far, as I wait to board my plane, although there have been a world of catastrophes, a flood has not been one of them.

My best friend and I are returning to revisit our two favorite places in Iceland. The generosity of her and her husband make this trip possible for me.

Another friend asked me why I keep returning to Iceland. What pulls me to return?.

The clean air. The thermal heat and fresh water. The variety of ecosystems. The quiet. The beauty. The wide open spaces. A place so different from home that I get a soul reset. And a week with God’s air conditioning—coat, gloves and sweaters packed.