Sunday Afternoon at Home

I woke up this morning to gusts of wind blowing snow skyward. At first it looked like the day would be a total weather-wash, so I resolved to stay home and study. This is never a good idea because I have at least four craft projects in various stages of "done-ness" and my OCD + ADHD make it hard to concentrate on anything when there's something to finish...but wait, there's that other thing and this to finish, too! While I like cardiology in the same way as organic chemistry - both involve a heavy amount of drawing - the magnitude of my behind-ness is overwhelming. My beloved computer has recently gone on the fritz, further compounding things because, oh my gosh, I. CANNOT. LIVE. WITHOUT. CHECKING. MY. EMAIL...WHEN. I. WANT. TO.

On the radio station I've been listening to, they play a fair amount of an Icelandic band, Sigur Ros. My father first introduced me to them my junior year of college. I remember popping in the CD for my first listen and time literally standing still. The music was so beautiful that I cried - in the middle of the House library. Their live performances have been described as "hurting." The music vibrates into your bones, which I certainly found to be the case when I took my parents to a concert of theirs two weeks after September 11th.

As I sat at my dining table today constructing paper flowers, "Hljomalind" came on the radio. It's odd to hear Sigur Ros on the radio, to know that others are aware of them, find them appealing, because I often feel like my family are the only Icelanders in the US. (Which is not true, of course - the Icelandic government recently donated $75,000 to a North Dakota town.) Listening to a song about home, sitting at home as the sun emerged to gild the snow, I felt my breath begin to slow and my mind to release.

Click here to view the trailer for their concert DVD, "Heima."