Just a few weeks in the past I did one thing I nearly by no means do. I packed a bag and acquired on a airplane with no plan in any respect. There is a direct flight from Vancouver to Iceland. No analysis, no itinerary. I let the universe work out the main points.
I might been pushing too arduous for some time — getting ready programs, writing, recording interviews, engaged on the brand new and thrilling leash design, serving to my workforce evolve and be proud of work and life so we may help you and your canine to really feel significantly better than you’d count on as they age.
However each few years, my physique and my thoughts remind me: Peter, cease!
So I finished. Cashed in my air miles and ended up in Iceland.
It is a small nation, simply over 400,000 folks, sitting on a literal crack within the earth the place two continents are slowly pulling aside and letting the planet’s molten core seep by to kind the island.
The outcomes are otherworldly. Numerous lively volcanoes, sizzling springs, moss coated mountains, huge glaciers, wild rivers, lush inexperienced pastures the place sheep and durable little horses graze in concord.
The tempo is sluggish, the one all of us would take pleasure in, however are having a tough time to realize in our busy lives. After which there are the birds, geese, geese, seabirds together with the lovable puffins.
I booked a kayaking tour at Glacier Lagoon, the place Europe’s largest glacier breaks aside and flows into the ocean.
A few of the big icebergs that calve off are blue, others blue-white with black stripes displaying the volcano eruption occasions in darkish ash deposits. For days, these stunning sculptures float within the lagoon, altering as days progress. Generally they’re nonetheless, at different occasions, they flip the other way up.
After a number of days, they pause close to the mouth of a shallow river till they’re sufficiently small to cross by. Paddling amongst them in a kayak was breathtaking.
Finally, the remnants of the icebergs are swept by the river, ending up within the ocean, the place waves wash them out on the close by black lava sand seashore referred to as Diamond Seashore.
The sight is surreal.
The scattered ice seems like glitter within the sand, resembling massive diamonds. They’re tossed by the waves, altering form and dimension, ultimately breaking apart earlier than vanishing within the ocean.
Proper there, as I witness the icebergs’ life coming to an finish (or the start) one thing clicked for me.
I believe we’re drawn to glaciers and icebergs as a result of they’re us.
We break off from the household glacier once we’re born. We drift by our personal lake of life, generally calm, generally turning the other way up and continually altering. And in the future, just like the ice on that seashore, we return to the ocean.
But it surely doesn’t make me unhappy. It is a reminder of how a lot it issues how we and our canines navigate by life.
That is actually the center of all the things you and I are attempting to do. I would like your canine’s time, and yours, to be as clear, stunning and glossy as a kind of icebergs earlier than it reaches the ocean, hopefully many a few years from now.
I would like you to have the ability to say: My canine is doing so significantly better than anticipated. My canine performs like a pet once more!
