30 before 30: Hike in Denali National Park

I spent 10 days travelling the State of Alaska. I drove 3,400 Kilometres. Took over 500 pictures, and ate out of way too many dehydrated food bags. 

I met a lot of really cool people and saw even more great things.

I learnt a lot about myself. I found peace in the rain, and got more and more depressed the closer I got to home proving the move to Vancouver is not by any means a mistake. 

New shoes! First run in them! 

Luna and I chilling at the beach in Seward. The only blue sky while I was in that funky town. 

My favourite place of the trip. 

Mount Marathon. I hike half-way up and got pepper sprayed.. She wanted to make sure it works. It worked.

When you can only carry 4L of water at a time and you are never really sure where the next refill comes from, you learn a new kind of respect for the land. 

Moose! A baby moose allowed me to hang out with it on a park path in Anchorage, AK 

The bus that took me 89 miles into the National Park of Denali. 6 hours on this thing is enough. 

Mt. McKinley. This picture does it no justice. We are still 30 or 40 miles as the bird flies to the peak. There are about 50 days a year when you can actually see it. I lucked out. 

Long live the river! 

Yep, love books. 

30 before 30 Spreading Jim in the Tombstones

I actually hiked and spread Jimmy on July 1, 2012. Two months ago... I am getting really bad at posting. Sorry. 

I was all alone out here. 

Could never grow tired of these mountains.

I dug a hole and put her ashes in the ground here. E.M.O.T.I.O.N.A.L! 

inspirations week four

"I went inside and I wrote: It is midnight. It is raining. It was not midnight. It was not raining. 

–Samuel Beckett

inspirations week two

 

“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. 

Love still stands when all else has fallen.”

 

 

inspirations week one (starting over)

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. 

-Jimmy Dean

California though the iPhone.

I'm not into going through the photos from my cannon so here's my California trip to see my mom and dad for Easter through my instagram account. Laziness.

Much love, my dear friends. 

Family pedicure day at one of those places that takes ten at a time for the low cost of $15.00 each. My vice. 

Santa Monica Dreaming. Where I sat quietly to plan and contemplate.

Common site from around my parent's house. Old farts and golf carts... 

Still wearing the wool sweater...in my defence it was early morning... 

Dinner with friends and family. Lavender. I love lavender. The waitress thought the sea bass was fresh. She said this after stating it came from the Indian Ocean. Last I checked California was on the Pacific... I ordered the steak with a pineapple, kamquat glaze. 

My sister is so beautiful. 

Notice the mint putter. The only way to golf is with style!

My first cactus. Sadly it's in a garden... 

How was your Easter?

And they say 24 hours is enough...

7am Bible Study

Coffee

Get to work, refill my coffee while reading my blog list

Justin freaked me out about propellers on his plane not working. eek. Pray and cry for a moment

Clean my office like I had cocaine for breakfast -- wonder why I am not always this energetic

Work like a slave

Traded in my spaceship for a much smaller rocket while eating lunch

Worked more, but less like a slave

Got upset with Jessie, she posts too many posts with shoes I want

Realize I can't have any of them, and that I am broke (see above)

Curse Jessie more. Damn her, and those shoes

Go to physio and learn to run. Terrifying, but amazing at the same time

Attend the monthly book club meeting

Freak out inside while learning Lawrence Hill is coming  here to read from Book of Negroes next week!

Walk the dogs while feeling guilty for not spending very much time with them this week, so I walked them longer than usual

Think about attending the midnight showing of Hunger Games - it would be my first midnight showing - but I decide to wait for my date on Saturday. *sigh* The things you do for boys

Fail (again) to teach Luna to "play dead"

Sleep like a sloth

Good-bye rocket. (Sorry I didn't clean it.)

I love Bible Study. It's nice to talk about God.

My sibs!

I was a serious pink-wearing gangster in my youth.

inspirations week eight

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul" - St. Augustine

march one

Colors so bright, they broke my heart.

–Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Jim, it seems like only a short while ago a friend held my hand while I let you go. As a believer, a person who trusts there is more to life than this, I hope and I pray that your life is only over here. That somewhere, somehow, you are dancing. 


Here, I miss you.


(i swear to you people, someday i will let her go. but how? )
 

inspirations week six

"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it."

-- Roald Dahl

inspirations week five

If we deny love given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain and loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.

inspirations week three

"The things you fail to appreciate are often the things you will soon lose."

-unknown

inspirations week one

“Vulnerability is the door to transformation and emancipation.

It is a false revival if our pains are not expressed and heard.”

- Walter Breuggemann

He's cute, period

I am about to put myself in the proverbial dog house. I can't help it, the world needs to know how cute he is.

I taught Justin to knit. He's a natural.

It's been a long, suffocating week for me. It's been full of please-God-won't-you-do-something lamentations. And a few loud, unanswered, Why's?

I'd like a break. I still feel loss, torn, and broken. I am still very confused and I have been praying nonstop for a relaxing Christmas Vacation so I can have time to figure it all out. So God can show me the answers to my questions in His own way.

I am ready for a break, a break where I can feel peace within me, hopeful for my future and surround myself with loved ones.

I always have really high expectations for this season; I wish each Christmas break is filled with a week of cuddling on the couch with classic Christmas movies, hot chocolate, late nights board game sessions, Christmas Light Tours, and tree hunting with the ones I love.

Most often it is spent in a whirlwind racing to wrap last minute gifts and trying to beat the clock. Perhaps this year I will simply try to enjoy the silent minutes in the chaos.

"Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life."

- Brian Andreas

Duke and Luna. Warms my little heart

dream big

I am gathering information and employing my imagination in preparing myself for what is to come: Life.

My 29th birthday is rapidly approaching and I feel as if 30 is a shorter distance away; it is time to get going before the going has up and left me.

It is easy for me to feel as though my life has no purpose and is without meaning - as you know, this is not the life I would have chosen if it were up to me. I know I am an important role in my work place as it could not function without me, but that does not automatically fill one with the satisfaction and lust for life that one needs.

My passion is in food. I don’t mean the mundane task of eating the food placed in front of us at each meal. I mean the bringing together of our loved ones; the reuniting with long lost friends; the falling in love with a stranger. We build our lives around food. We nourish our souls along side our family and friends. Our busy lives disconnect and separate us, but dinner will always encourage sharing and warmth.

It is in these moments while gathered around the table that I love to step back and watch life unfold its beauty. I take pleasure in knowing that a simple dish can create life. It brings reminiscing, makes plans for the future, and comforts us in ways only our loved ones know how.

Therefore, the way I see it, the maker of food makes life. Who wouldn’t want to be a chef?

- "Be ignited, or be gone." - Mary Oliver

“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

For me, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man, or for flowers or beast or bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly and perfectly alive. - Al Purdy