Alaskana

Clouds and a picture.


Up in the clouds - the dog, Kewee, and me.


Kewee checking out the view.


Colors of the higher elevations at Mt. Baldy.


The sun, bursting through the late morning clouds.


A day on top of the hills. Maybe a day to think or just a day to browse the hill tops. It was sunny - for a portion of the hours spent on ridge. Possibly one of the few remaining sunny and warmer days for this dwindling summer season.

Clouds. They move and take shape as the winds direct. Some are small. Others are large. Many find themselves joining together, moving across the sky in solemn unity to destinations unknown. Their shapes ebb and flow, constantly changing to the environment in which they find themselves, adapting only to survive and to carry on that mission upon which they strive. Mountains prove no match as the winds push and tug the whitish shapes around the stationary mound - a shape changing only by that which stood in its path. Rarely stagnant are these elevated wisps of elegance. They lay still for none continuing their progress, their mission 'till Someone says "done".

Ore-gone

fun with gp's new camera...

Yeah, and so the blog is not well paid attention too these days. What'd say when the mind is attempting to connect with the heart but recieves little response?

Ah, the States. It has been just over three weeks since returning from the outerworld back to the States. Hard to beleive. At times I feel as if I haven't been away from the States at all - as if the last 7 months didn't exist. Thankfully, that is a breif, albeit odd, lapse of memory or sensation. Sometimes I think my brain is trying to block the past experiences for reasons unknown, or rather, not acknowledged.

The last ten days or so have been spent in the Lower 48 visiting family and friends. Ultimately the travel continues and the record for "staying in one place for more than 2 weeks" has not yet been touched since departure from New Zealand some months ago. Right now northwestern Oregon has been a place of visitation and good times. Back to Alaska by the end of this coming week.

Alaska is a grand place, but, it's diffucult to be back in the same place here. Something has changed within me and it doesn't quite fit in a place from where I once came.

To be completely honest I think I am ready to leave again.

The US of A

site of wedding, near Stanley, Idaho (Sawtooth Mts)


The return to Alaska. It has been very grand to have returned to the US of A.

It's been a week since boarding a plane in Rome and flying back to the US. It's been a rather full week, well, at least up until yesterday.

Following a nearly 24 hour plane commute to Boise, Idaho I had the opportunity to attend my brother's wedding near Stanley, Idaho (reference above picture). That was three days of driving, family, and wedding.

Then following a late return to Alaska I attended my 10 year high school graduation this past Saturday. Now, that's an interesting thing, visiting with people you have hardly seen in 10 years and who you may not have known anyway in high school... Really good, but quite awkward at moments. It's amazing how some people change, and, how some people don't change - at least they are of a legal age to drink now. Certainly it was very, very good to see some people, and sad that others did not show up - quite a good time overall.

Of course Sunday brought church and a church barbecue - both fine events in which to say hello to some people.

And, finally, when all the events were over it was time to begin the process of re-acquainting one's self with friends, going through the mail (crappy junk mail!), consolidating pictures onto the computer, writing long delayed emails, and simply catching up with the past seven months or so. I don't suppose this catching up will ever really be caught up, though.

Perhaps the most onerous thing of returning to the US, and specifically Alaska, is that it all seems so normal on some level. However, the experiences had over the past 7 months were certainly not what one may consider normal. One person's "normal" is another person's "unusual". There is a progression, long since begun, of actually "processing" the events, experiences, and emotions of the past 7 months of life. None of which were "normal" in the American sense of the word, but perfectly make sense within the context of God's plan.

And, so, let the paradigm shift continue and the paradox of the past seven months further bring about the fruit of the pains of childbirth (such would be an attempt at a metaphor, nothing else).