Progress in Honoring My New Year's Resolution

8 July 2012
9:13 PM

Sunset at	12:21 AM	in direction	338°	North-northwest
Sunrise at	3:32 AM	in direction	22°	North-northeast

Civil Twilight all day

Early summer garden

 I set out to write about Alaskan living in the Interior at the first of the year.  My goal was to write each day and I have not met that target.  Today, July 8th, I should have 191 entries and this is my 154th.  Somehow I let nearly 40 days slip away without saying anything about life here.  Sometimes I did not have an internet connection, such as when I was in Anchorage at the end of June and stayed in a budget hotel.  My hotel room had no microwave, no coffee maker, no A/C and needless to say, no internet.  In Anchorage for summer rates - even at the Alaskan resident rate - I was paying $150/night with bed tax included.  So that was three days without any attempt to write.

There have been other reasons for other days, of course.  I found it far easier to honor the commitment while it was winter.  We don't travel as much in winter, so I am not as likely to be somewhere where I can't post anything.  But, I can't over look that during the summer, outdoor activities have taken precedence over a daily journal of life here.  And too, while aspects of my life here are still different from what I experienced elsewhere, life is more relaxing.  I wonder how much the creative drive we experience in the far north is a response to being just a little uncomfortable.

Right now, I can't bear to think about winter.  I know by the end of July, I will already be seeing some signs that fall is coming.  By the end of August, it will be far cooler here than anywhere else I have lived and the understory will be turning red and leaves turning gold.  By September, if we get a warm sunny day instead of rain, we will be very happy.  By October we are expecting the first snow to fall that lasts until break up the following spring.

This is the time be outside making the most of days , not focused inward.