conversations: part one...

Last weekend's nearly 6 hours in the car up to Anchorage and back provided ample opportunity for Lisa and I to indulge in some rich conversation.

One of the things I mentioned (and I know I have written about this before but for me it's worth repeating because it's just one of the ways God has blessed me) was how I still can't get over the fact that I get to live here. In Alaska. It's a state that is 2.5 times the size of Texas (if you divided Alaska in half, Texas would be the 3rd largest state) and is 1/5 the size of all the lower 48 combined, with over 365 million acres (1 million for every day of the year). Yet given it's vast size there are less than 1 million people in the entire state (only 640K). The state sport is dog mushing and the state land mammal is the moose. There are more than 3000 rivers, over 3 million lakes, over 100,000 glaciers, and 70 active volcanoes in Alaska. And of the 20 highest peaks in North America, 17 of them are here. I could go on and on about all that Alaska has to offer, but that could potentially take forever and I have too much daylight to burn right now.

I seriously sometimes still cannot believe that I get to live here. I drive down the street and God takes my breath away over and over again. Sometimes when I am listening to the radio I will hear someone say something about Soldotna and my mind will have forgotten that I live here and for a brief moment I will think in my mind, Hey! I've been to Soldotna!... And then I will remember that I live here and my heart fills with joy all over again like it was my first day here. That really happens to me now and never happened in Kansas (Amy, I know you love it there but I was just dying to get out).

The realization of this dream started a long time ago when I was a little girl. We would vacation in the mountains of Colorado nearly every summer and I always found refuge there. My heart was always happier there. The mountains are so much more impressive to me than the ocean. I was 14 or 15 before I ever saw the ocean (in Galveston, TX) and when I did it was like just another large body of water to me, another lake. I was unimpressed. Now I live where ocean is divided by mountains rising up out of the water like Triton did in Greek mythology. The sites are truly remarkable - there aren't adequate words to describe the beauty and splendor of this place.

When I brought this up, Lisa said that she feels the same way about Alaska. We are so lucky!