Rolling, green mountains, dotted with giant spruce, the color of dark envy rise high into the icy blue sky before plunging deep into the emerald waters. Tiny, rocky islands dance across the ocean’s surface like a velvet bag of gems poured out on a glassy mirror.
This scene of ethereal beauty is where we spent our weekend. Kodiak, Alaska: a land of enormous bears, intriguing people, and breathtaking beauty.
After our community bible study on Thursday, Toby and I flew off to Kodiak, Alaska, an hour southwest of Anchorage. Located on a majestic island, this fishing community is an amazing convergence of traditional bustling life of a fishing village and the serene calm of a coastal resort town. We traveled there to visit our friends, David and Mechelle Bradbury, who are also planting a church and starting in their home.
We had an amazing weekend walking through the forests (after which, we noticed the signs about recent bear sightings), enjoying the local restaurants’ fresh fish menus, and sea kayaking in one of the nearby bays.
As truly hospitable guests, David and Mechelle hosted a barbeque to introduce us to their friends and together we had a great time talking, laughing, and eating, eating, eating.
While there is nothing like the security and familiarity of one’s own bungalow, it is always refreshing to step away and visit the worlds of others. I feel like I learned a lot about my friends and about myself on this trip – lessons that were welcome and helped me see myself in new perspectives.
As I was paddling my kayak back into the beach, I began to glide and just paused to breathe in the surroundings. I was leading the pack, so all I saw before me were the sparkling ocean tides crashing onto the rocky beach, tall grass framing a nearby riverbed, and mountains rising high before me.
That’s when it hit me. This is how I want to spend my time. Enjoying life. I don’t want to waste my days with the mundane tasks and commitments that don’t truly fulfill me. I want each moment to feel like I’m gliding across glassy waters; each day to be filled with excitement and true enjoyment.
I don’t need to kayak every day, but I do want to learn to truly live in the moment; to learn to capture opportunities for joy; to simply live.
While I’ve been saying this for quite a while (35 years to be exact), this weekend helped emphasize this in a whole new way, and hopefully was impacting enough to give me the courage to make positive change.
It was a wonderful weekend with friends. And hopefully, it was a weekend to change my life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
ELLEN!!! Finally I have come to read all of your fabulous musings!! While I always thought it before, reading these posts confirms it: You are AWESOME! I'm excited Toby's writing a book, but I hope you are thinking about it to. You have a gift with words and you are not afraid to live honestly and openly!! I am blogging this month for ninetyandnine and I am definitely going to recommend that people check out your blog! Love you!
Post a Comment