OMG GUYS IT IS XMAS SEASON!!! (and none of these photos are related to that fact)

Hello lovelies!!

I hope you are all having a fantastic start to your December! If you are still chugging away at finals, I wish you good luck- you are almost done!! Christmas is my favorite holiday, and as such I have taken it upon myself to decorate the apartment and sing Christmas carols at the top of my lungs. Today, however, I am not going to be sharing Christmas. Instead I am sharing a special roommate bonding day that occurred right before Veterans day.

We had a long weekend (read: excuse to procrastinate on homework), and it was a lovely sunny Seattle afternoon. One of my roommates and I didn't want to study (see above), but didn't really know what to do with ourselves. It was then that I remembered someone telling me that I needed to visit Golden Gardens Park when I had some time. So, in true impromptu adventure style, we pulled up the bus route, grabbed supplies (aka: my camera), and hit the road.

After and hour long bus ride through Seattle, we hopped off the bus and began to meander down some stairs. And then we went down some more stairs. And then, when we were wondering if the stairs would ever end, we went underneath the railroad tracks and Golden Gardens was spread out before us in a glorious mixture of sea, sand, and stunning mountain vistas.

In true Nodak-Has-Spent-Basically-No-Time-Around-Large-Bodies-Of-Water fashion, I immediately stripped off my shoes and socks and ran into the surf. It was refreshing and a bit chilly and I loved every minute of walking in the sand- I was so enthusiastic about it, in fact, that I convinced my roommate to shed his shoes and socks and splash along the waterline with me.  We wandered the length of the beach and back, and were graced with one of the most glorious and never ending sunsets I have ever seen. It was so fantastic that it deserves(and will get) a post entirely devoted to it.

So this is Roommate Bonding Day Pt. 1: Sand, Surf, and Sunsets that Never End. Hope you enjoy!!

Till we meet again,

AK

My Invitation

Hello folks,

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be apart of a community recently, and trying to figure out what type of community I want to build in my new home. Some of you know that I am very close to my immediate family, and that in the years before I left for Seattle I found some of the most amazing people who became an extended part of my family and the center of my Midwest community. Now that I have made the leap and headed West I am confronted with a situation wholly new to me- for the first time I don't have my family here to lean on while I build new friendships and (hopefully) a new PNW community.  I am not trying to create anything supplementary or superior to my Midwest community, but rather to create a new addition- a group that mutually cares and supports each other as we grow and change in the Pacific Northwest.

But what does that mean? What does it look like or feel like- what community type am I searching for? These are excellent questions, and I have been struggling with them for longer than I care to admit, because honestly I don't have the words to describe what I am searching for. The closest I can come to describing what I am hoping to join/create/develop here while in grad school is a poem written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called "The Invitation."

The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

If those words move you, if they touch an ache deep in your soul, if they move you to joy or to sorrow- I invite you to join me. Let's create a community both here in the Pacific Northwest and via this weird quirky world called the interwebs. Come join me fellow transplants, whether you are still near your home or, like myself, far far away. Let's be pen pals, adventure buddies- let's share laughs and, if the occasion calls for it, tears. Let's build a community together. Let's start today. 

-AK

The Big Four Ice Caves

Hey folks,

Seattle has settled into the rainy season, but before I submitted to the idea that my raincoat was a permanent accessory, I was fortunate enough to take a trip up into the mountains to explore the Big Four Ice Caves I had been hearing so much about.  I have to admit, the caves are totally worth the hype AND the warnings of danger! I didn't see any ice fall, but the piles of gleaming ice we navigated around made it rather blatant that the area had the potential to be as treacherous as it was beautiful.

3 Favorite Memories:

1) Meeting up with Amy who lives in the Seattle area but was originally from my hometown! It is always a nice surprise to have someone who has made the same type of transition as you reach out and ask to go adventuring. It was a wonderful experience and I hope we can explore more in the future!

2) The crazy weather. We had rain, fog, sun, clouds... you name it we experienced it while hiking up to and back from the caves! It made for gorgeous contrasts and added a bit of constant surprise to our adventure!

3) The caves themselves. This one might be a "well duh," but I've been on hikes where the end destination wasn't as awe inspiring as some of the views on the trail. The one mile hike to the caves is gorgeous, but the caves themselves are the true stars of this adventure!

Stay wild my friends,

AK