Tonight I was reminded of how lucky I am. I have spent 4 of the last five summers waking up next to a river every day. 22 Years on this Earth and I have seen the glory of mountains almost every day. Each time I drive home, they are bathed in a different light, a different set of rules govern them. Each day I wake up next to a river, it is a little different than the day before.

Each time I drive from Anchorage home to Eagle River I crane my head and look up, want to see how my mountains have changed, what they look like today. I’ve done that drive thousands of times and I still never get bored on that stretch of highway. Every river I cross, every lake I pass by, every mountain I see, I look, I look for fish, I look for birds, I look for moose and bears and wolves. I look for life emanating in all of its glory from a place yet untamed. I look for routes to the top, lines to ski, places to explore, places to sit and glass for moose, places to ride a bike. I look just to understand the layout of the land, the way things look, how what I see relates to the map. I see where the water flows, where the streams meet, where it all happens. I see it all, I feel nature around me. When I drive home, I notice my mountains in the distance first. Pioneer Peak, Twin Peaks, Bear Mountain, Baldy, Hiland, Mile High, this is my home, this is where I belong. These mountains catch the snow, which forms the glaciers, which produce the big rivers, to which the creeks flow and the salmon spawn, and the trout grow large, and the terns eat, and the bears roam, and the plants grow, giving the moose browse and the ptarmigan hiding spots. I am lucky because I see all this every day in my life.

I am lucky I spent a summer in a tent by the ocean, living by the tides and the wind. Harvesting the fish from the sea. Living with people who love it, loving the world with others. None of us can ever take these things for granted, none of us should stop fighting for these places. On that beach I could dig down deep and see oil, see the wrath of man. We should never forget, that to be one with the sea, one with the mountain, or one with the lake we must sacrifice, and if we don’t we will never truly live. We will never suck the marrow from life. When I come to die, I will have lived a great life, even if fate should strike me down tomorrow. So go out there and live, do what you love, be with who you love, so that tomorrow if you should die, you will have truly lived.

Thanks for reminding me that I’m alive Rhea.

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