The Call of the Wild

My favorite poet, Wendell Berry, said it best:

The Peace of Wild Things 

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Lately I've been feeling that same draw. Not to escape despair,  but to feel closer to my Savior. My heart swells and I feel like I am going to explode with the sheer force of His love.  I have to get out of the hustle and bustle of my life,  away from civilization,  and drink in the beauty of His creation. I soak it up like a sponge. I can't get enough of it. 

I have been making it a point to notice the love notes that He sends me on a daily basis.  And oh there are SO many!!  For starters, where I live.  Alaska is breathtaking.  And He is  painting a daily masterpiece for me.  I love that Alaska has such amazing differences in daylight hours between summer and winter. In the summer I see neither sunrise nor sunset.  In the winter, however, I get to see each and every one. I've occasionally noticed them, but only when it is spectacularly amazing. Well, guess what.  I don't know if I'm just now noticing or if my Creator is just really putting on a show this year, but wow.  Just.  Wow.  

Yesterday I escaped.  Just me.  The sun was shining and I was chomping at the bit.  Almost buzzed.  Antsy.  Thursday is my early-off day so I hopped in my car and took off.  I drove into Willow and pulled off at a turnout area that gave a perfect view of Denali.  He is a little ethereal.  Sometimes he is bright and glorious.  Other times he can't be seen at all.  Yesterday he looked rather like a hologram or even a watermark on paper.  Just barely visible.  As I sat and watched, he completely disappeared.  The weather there is often different than the weather here and apparently they were pretty hazy.  It was still an amazing blessing to watch him change before my very eyes.  Sadly, he was too light to be captured on camera.

And yes, I call Denali "him".  Denali means "The Great One".  And the two smaller mountains beside him, whose names I can never remember, mean "Wife of the Great One" and "Son of the Great One."  Therefore; male.  (Sorry, my readers who insist he's female.  Can't argue with the Natives who named him!)  ;)

After he disappeared, I still had some time before I needed to head back into town so I kept going.  I blared my praise music and sang until I was hoarse.  I gloried in the amazing creation around me.  I turned around at the Kashwitna River and headed back home.  Along the way I stopped for some snaps of my mom's favorite mountain, Susitna, or The Sleeping Lady.  

Then on to pick up my son from school, where I took this shot from the parking lot.  I mean really.  From the parking lot of his high school.  Is there anywhere more fabulous than Alaska??  I think not.

(These are all taken with a phone. Just imagine if I had a real camera. And, you know, had a clue what I was doing...)

God is so amazing.  <3