i'm off ...

for the weekend.

It is my first trip back to our beloved Alaska since we left there.

 

I've been dreaming of this for weeks.

I'm envisioning a deep cleansing breath of fresh and slightly humid air ..

the clean out the sinuses kind.

 

I am sort of picturing just sitting at Hatcher Pass for a spell

and soaking in the beauty of nature.

 

Of course, I am going to share entire pots of coffee over long overdue visits.

Lots of those.

 

I am going to see kiddos that were little when we left

now grown into bigger versions of those same littles.

I wonder if they'll remember me.

 

There are very good reasons we live where we do right now.

Those reasons haven't changed since we came back.

In fact, if you look at what has happened in our family in the past several years ...

we were meant to be here.

 

"It shouldn't be easy to leave somewhere if you have really lived there."

We did.

If there was any way possible to spend part of the year up there

and the rest down here,

I would do it in a heart beat.

Maybe someday we will figure out a way.

 

For today,

I'm breathing in the sights, smells, sounds (non freeway kind) and people

I've been yearning for.

 

I'm kind of giddy about it.

 

The concrete jungle can wait.