Holy numerous cats!
(And there are two missing in this shot!)
How the time does fly, whether your life is good, bad or indifferent! So much has gone on since my latest little update…
Until today I never had anyone ask me why I wasn’t writing.
Doesn’t bode well as to my viewer-ship. Who knew?
(Well… if you want honesty, I sort of figured that out awhile ago.)
Let’s see….
I have done more traveling, this time to see the splendor of Alaska in the summer. Life on the tundra is really quite spectacular as well as humbling, it's at times overwhelming and hard to believe.
Check the pictures if you doubt me…
This is the postcard my loved one lives in...
No joke, no editing...
This is the quiet eloquence she looks at daily.
Below you will see the sweet little
cabin that was all mine for three weeks!
How adorable is that?
If there was one thing that I would have to say I miss the most since my return home from the wilds of Alaska, it would be a tie between the quiet and the smell. Living in the city for all my life, and even spending time at a "rural" location from time to time, did not prepare me for what I would encounter in Alaska. Previously I thought of rural as also being a little remote.
I'll explain the difference between rural and remote that I now truly understand. My brother lived in a rural area. He was approximately 15 to 20 minutes away from, grocery stores, Wal-marts, restaurants, a plethora of pretty much anything you could want.
That is rural.
My seriously adjusted understanding of the word remote occurred during my trip north. Imagine getting in your car and driving to say, a town two to three hours away. In that town you would only have: a Post Office, a small grocery store, a gas station, a service station, a laundromat, a few assorted very small businesses and a part time DMV/DOT office. Then drive back home. Driving another two to three hours.
That is remote.
To get to the Wal-marts, the restaurants, the plethora of pretty much anything you want?
That's a minimum of five to six hours traveling. One way. And they do this often! They actually drive six hours, get all the stuff they need and then start the six hour drive back home. Trust me when I say, ya' just don't "run back to the store" if you forget something.
That took some getting used to!
I noticed the much different smell on one of our stops before heading to their home, after being picked up in Anchorage. (after a six hour flight!) This was how I learned about the "remote supplies stops" as we headed into the mountains.
There was road construction going on and we had to wait for our turn, I got out of the car to stretch my legs and while I took in the beauty, I realized I could actually smell the water of a creek about 40 yards away. I was in awe of it! Then we were on our way once again.
There were numerous sights to behold as we continued deeper up into the Alaskan Mountain Range. And I do not lie when I tell you I was so taken by the scenery that it brought tears to my eyes. It was very spiritual for me. Mother Earth sustains us all and reveling at her art work is a humbling experience.
This picture is looking out across the Tangle Lakes River Valley. The Alaskan Mountain Range is stunning from this vantage point. This was taken from the summit of Mount Paxson, 4,700 feet above sea level.
Back to the smell...
I was in the process of overcoming my jet lag when it dawned on me that the smell wasn't an "Ick! What is that?!" smell but more like, "So this is fresh air!?!" I could smell the water, the Snow Roses, the dogs, the plants, the moss... it was quite amazing.
Probably the next thing was the "not-really-quiet-quiet" It took a night or two to adjust from hearing the wilds-of-Alaska quiet. The sound of the rushing river, the birds, from the swallows getting their fill of mosquitoes to the high pitched cries of the bald eagles riding the thermals. The dogs; one low, moaning howl that became the sound of many, the small yips and barks that signaled happiness of their mushers, their friends...
How it could be classified as "quiet" is a little shady, but quiet it was nonetheless. No traffic, no sirens, no neighbors arguing for all to hear, no thump-thump-thump of the someday-they'll-be-needing-hearing-aids generation.
It was so serene and hectic. It was laid back then hurried. A quiet vacation... HA!What a paradox it really was.
The nature of the place reached deep inside me. It opened that "someday-I'll" section of my mind. I thought about the high school dreams of building my log cabin home in the mountains. Living the natural life...
Learning to survive on my own in the Great Wilderness. I found myself rather nostalgic, remembering the way I had dreamt of writing books and stories by the light of a lantern. Listening to the sounds of the wolves singing, the eagles flying... lying on the crisp winter snow watching the Northern Lights dancing their ballet over the sky...
How I wondered what my life would have been like if I'd had the courage to make those dreams come true... but doesn't life go by like in a tick? One day you're 18, the next nearly 50...
