What a few weeks it’s been! Busy, with lots of ups and downs, and still so much practical stuff to do… but I’m remembering what a difference it makes to my mood to be well-fed and to knock a few key things off the to-do list (especially those I’ve been putting off). So having just made myself a nice lunch after successfully tackling a rather daunting to-do list this morning, I’m on the up at the moment.

I forgot how it feels when you first move abroad – the way time marches forward, oblivious to the many, many things you need to do in order to start getting settled (and there’s a lot more of it this time around than there was when I was in Hungary). There are utilities accounts to set up and housewares to buy and errands to run and furniture to put together. The electrician needs to come by and see why the overhead light in the bathroom isn’t working properly. That piece of mail delivered to our box by mistake needs to be taken over to the post office. And I finally took care of getting a Norwegian SIM card this week only to learn after putting it in my phone and using it that I’ll be unable to text American numbers if my Norwegian mobile provider doesn’t have an agreement with the American mobile provider for that phone number (a problem I have never, ever had with Norwegian SIMs in the past). I forgot the way that all of those little things can start to add up and accumulate to make you feel like you’re having The Worst Day Ever. And Time doesn’t care, it marches on.

But that stuff starts to get dealt with, and it gets better, too (and, note to self: eating good meals regularly helps immensely). There’s so much to celebrate and be grateful for right now. School is going well and I love the little yarn store down the street. The nights are now dark enough for some of the stars to come out, and last night the aurora was out. I watched it from my bedroom window (my bedroom window!) for about an hour. It may seem trivial or frivolous to say this, but that is one of the things I have been looking forward to the most about moving here. The northern lights inspire a sense of childlike wonder in me in a way few other things do. The landscape here does it too, but the lights… the lights are magic.

I think that stuff, that sense of awe and wonder, is so important to life and mental health and feeling whole and fulfilled in this world. So for now, I’ll remind myself that the stuff that’s hard right now will fall away with time, and I’ll do my best to eat well and take care of myself and go easy on myself when I can. For now, that’s enough.