New York, December.

I’m sitting in my bed, stretching my legs out because today I’ve spent hours walking the streets of New York city. Here are some thoughts about it:

• It’s darker than I thought and the buildings dissappear up in the clouds, the smell, the smoke, the soft rain. I love it.
• There’s so many things happening already that whatever you’re doing might have already been done by someone. A lot of big people. I both do and do not feel cool here.
• Manhattan is big, not a small island, but a city. It’s not one Street that is cool and crowded. The buildings stretch endlessly. Yet everything is right here, you can walk from central Park to rockefeller to times square.
• I went to the New York Public Library. There are so many places where people are just being.
• It feels completely ridiculous that New York city actually exists outside of the TV screen, like being here made me realise that in my head it was almost a fairytale. It’s a dream walking these streets. Yet it makes itself obvious.
• It would take years of lunches to discover all the cute places to eat. Tempting.

And that’s all for this first day.

(I wrote “Along the way” as the name of this post, but this whole blog could carry that name, a life could.)

Do you want to give coffee to a stranger in snowy New York City??

Click here! 

Random post, I know, but do you guys remember this thing I wrote a while ago?? I still really want to give out Starbucks in Tokyo, but since I’m going to New York in a couple weeks anyways, I thought I’d try it there!

Soo, feel very welcome to click the link and give a few dollars, and I’ll use it to buy a coffee or hot chocolate and give it to a real, living, breathing person on the streets of New York! Kinda cool, right? And if you buy two I’ll use the extra money to send you a cute little christmasy thank you note! Cause I love to tie it back to you, so that you (whoever you are) also get something real and tangible after just clicking a few buttons. Just send me your address in an Instagram dm!

Hugs to you, I’m not writing much here right now, mainly because my computer broke and I’m sad, but I’m also happy because there are more important things in life than computers (say it til you mean it) and I’ll write more other days.

(Also, just one more thing, can we all appreciate that there are websites like unsplash where you can just download copyright-free photos, just like that?? I mean I could technically just download a bunch and make a pretty Instagram? And it wouldn’t be illegal? Cool. Okay, actually good bye.)

In 2017 I got to experience all the different seasons, and even in the right order. In summer I moved to Florida, autumn I flew to Japan, and now I got some winter in Sweden.

And there’s no transitions. Just an airplane, and then autumn leaves. Airplane again, and my feet were in snow.

(I like the colour and taste of the world. I like to try out the shape of it, like the way it fits under my feet.)

But I miss its pulse. The first flowers in spring. The slow rains and long autumns before snow actually covers the grass one day. I miss hearing the world breathe.

Artists grow old. (hearts gain weight, or maybe sight). Like the aging Monet who painted the water lilies in his garden in every different light, every different season. Like Hokusai’s series of thirty-six different views of Mount Fuji.

(I think they learn, that)

There’s everything to see. But there’s also everything to see in every thing.

Saturday 25th of November

Good morning, bad day, good evening.

Good morning.
I got to help out with a homeless ministry. It was nice. The sun rose while we rode the trains and we gave out hot chocolate and coffee to the people being cold (so to ourselves as well).

Bad day.
I came home and realised I can fill my schedule completely with things that make me feel like I’m a good person, but still be dissatisfied under the overwhelming pressure to perform and be good and be good and be good. My friend told me to take the rest of the day off.

Good evening.
The sun set and I needed to get out of the house a bit, so I was going to a café at the station.

Then I realised I could go anywhere.

And my heart started shaking with excitement, I could go anywhere. Like really, any place in Tokyo. And so I jumped on the train to Ikebukuro, and then went to Harajuku. Walked along the crowded streets and then past lit up blue trees towards Shibuya (which is my favourite place in the world). I was considering whether I should talk to anyone, but I was so intenesly aware, so outside of my body yet so in it, soul expanding but walls up even though they were windows and that’s okay, that was okay for that time.

⬑Harajuku, blue trees and tiny streets.

(Also, soundtrack for the night: Warriors by M.I.A. For some reason middle eastern hip hop was just right.)