Back from my first big game hunt

Growing up as the eldest child in a Marine Corps family meant that I was taught early the importance of conscientious hunting and providing naturally for oneself and one's family.  I have always enjoyed these days spent outside.

Texas deer, however, are a bit different than moose in Delta, Alaska!  Those in the party with 20-40+ years experience called "the most difficult they have ever been on." It was an adventure and I loved it!  Many blogs and photos coming soon..... featuring moose, wolves, falls into icy rivers, injuries, 4-hour ATV rides and wild river crossings, a medical emergency in the middle of nowhere, and more, the updates will continue for a while.

To get to the spot where this photo was taken, we hiked in 1.5 miles, crossed the Tanana by boat, completed a 10-mile ATV trek through soft forest, reached base camp, rode in another 18 very rocky miles up the river (crossing the water over a dozen times), and hiked in another 2 miles. It was a crazy, wonderful trip!

Can a space in your house be inspirational?

Last week I drew up an article for The Infinite Field Magazine about how to create a living space that welcomes in Nature and the Divine. As you know, my purpose is to continually explore the natural world, examining how our relationships with nature impact our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves. The article focused a bit more on the logistical aspects of how to implement what you learn into your life far away from the site of learning.

This vein of thinking is all very new to me, and I find myself still thinking about the "how to's." Personally, my relationship with the natural world is the source of the vast majority of my creative inspiration. Is there a way to craft an inspirational space?

I believe that positive energy can be created to fill a space. I believe that rooms and people can be filled with color. I believe that color and light are inspirational in and of themselves. So, yes, I suppose spaces can become what we need them to be.

“Creativity” means the way that you think and live your life. You do not have to be the next Picasso to enjoy the colors and sounds of life around you; Mozart is not the only one whom a beautiful piece of music has ever moved to tears. Yes, scrapbooking is creative. If it entails making something evocative, or even beautiful, from your own energies, where nothing existed before, then it is creative.

Creative thought and creative living is worth pursuing; I believe that cultivating a means of expressing creativity is vital to physical health. The quality of a creative life is much higher than a boring one. Creative people are open to exploration and new chances; they communicate with the souls around them and are capable of turning the proverbial lemon into lemonade. If nothing else, they have infinitely better sex lives.

Without further rambling, here are five ways to build an inspirational space:

1) Turn off the television! No one has ever created something great while staring at the black box.

2) While you are at it, turn off the email, instant messaging, your cell phone, and anything else that remotely smacks of technology. The creative process, an encompassing one, simply does not optimally engage when technology competes for the mind’s eye and energy.

3) Turn the radio up. Try classical, jazz, or anything else without lyrics or a singer – other people’s words can make it hard to hear your own. Since your own words are nothing but the faintest of whispers when you first begin to uncover your creative process, you cannot allow anything to interfere.

4) Surround yourself with colors, images, quotations, or anything that makes you feel that creative pull in your mind, your heart, and your gut. Pictures of Alaska, momentoes, and sketches do it for me.

5) Visualize the creative self while you are filling your space with inspirational objects, sights, and sounds. On the bulletin board above the desk where I write, wedged in between soaring landscapes, I keep a picture of myself on the Copper River with no makeup, camping hair, a sunburn, and an absolutely happy smile. A similar picture of myself is propped behind the easel where I paint. That is the me I want to be – that is the portrait of a happy, creative woman. That ideal, my ideal, reminds me to harness the energy of that woman whenever I pick up a pen or a paintbrush. Putting up pictures of yourself is neither modest nor socially acceptable, but it can be inspiring, and that is what matters.

How will you know if your space is inspirational? You will know when you write, paint, daydream, or doodle. You will know when the energy in this space is so positive that animals spend their time there, too, just to take it all in. Not there yet? Then light a candle, add more lamps, open a window, change out objects, or slap a brighter coat of paint on the walls.... but don't give up. A creative life is one worth exploring; a space to base such explorations is worth building.

Max, one of my usually-wild cats, who must be removed from his favorite napping spot on my desk before I can get any work done.  It was only after I made a commitment to making that room an inspirational one that he began sleeping there.  The bulletin board in the background is my "Alaska board."

Where Military Service and Alaska meet...

I often struggle to reconcile my duties as a military officer with the more free-spirited side of me that feels deeply called to run off to Alaska with paintbrush in one hand, camera in the other, and a pen shoved behind my ear.  I'm sure that back in Alaska I would be writing the best novel the world has ever seen, developing an economically feasible structure to implement world peace, and growing perfect tomatoes in the one-month window available (organic, of course).

The reality of my current situation is that while the Navy does take me away from my writing and other creative pursuits for chunks of time, and can cause such stress that I feel anything but creative, military service has also shown me a structured and disciplined way to approach my projects, and has introduced me to the places and people that I write about.... without the Navy experience, I don't think I would have a lot to say!

As my quest for balance continues, I thought the article below, first published in Military Times, is an interesting look at what can happen when my worlds meet: 

Joint team to relocate entire Alaskan town

Staff report
Posted : Sunday Sep 6, 2009 8:20:52 EDT

The town of Newtok, Alaska — population 350 — is sinking. Rising Arctic temperatures mean the nearby Ninglick River is growing, the permafrost on which the town stands is melting, and the tiny village doesn’t have much time left.


The solution? Move the town.


Airmen, sailors, Marines and National Guardsmen will spend the next five years on a project doing just that, according to a Navy announcement, using summer windows of clear weather to relocate Newtok to higher, drier ground about nine miles away.


The joint team, made up mostly of reservists, used its first trip in late August to establish a base camp from which to operate and accept more supplies.

“Our attempt this year was just to get a foothold,” said Marine Master Sgt. Graham Hilson of Huntington Beach, Calif., mission commander and operations chief for Alpha Company, 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group. The team also laid down a layer of Dura-Base, mats that Marines use for expeditionary runways, as a temporary road and base for the camp site.


In 2010, another team will return to build a road leading from a barge landing to the new village site, so supplies and people can arrive by utility landing craft and help with the move to the new town. The military team also plans to build an airfield and an evacuation shelter during future visits to Newtok.


It won’t be easy, however, and part of the goal for the Pentagon is to give reservists a chance to practice their skills in the difficult Alaskan environment.


The Newtok town move is one of several projects the Pentagon is coordinating as part of its Innovative Readiness Training program, which lends service members to help with local building and engineering jobs.

Tapping into inspiration... Part One!

A mentor told me a few months ago that if I want to write, I have to “be always writing.” She encouraged me to mine everything I can for inspiration, and to not be afraid to share what I am thinking and feeling with others.

Inspiration can be hard to find, though, especially for a woman caught in a never-ending web of computers, cell phones, and electronic gadgets and trapped far away from her muse.  I am still working toward embracing those technologies that help me share my vision with others, and rejecting those that feel like they take over my life; in the meantime, the more pressing question is how to bring Alaska and her inspiration to me when I live so far away? 

A few week ago I spent the day at the San Diego Zoo, one of my favorite places in the bustling city the Navy has named as my home for the next few years. I enjoy the Zoo for the obvious reasons, but also because it is one of the few places in this industrialized cityscape that I can remember with little effort what it feels like to stand on mountains in Alaska.  Some days, especially when I am tired and run down, it can be hard to remember what it feels like to stand in crisp air by myself.  The combined neurotic energies of millions of people can be suffocating.

The land of the midnight sun makes me want to write more than I want to eat, paint things I did not know my hands could see, and pray without ceasing to draw breath. I could not quiet my soul on those mountains if I tried.

The Zoo’s mass of colors brings those feelings back to some degree. I like to take a notebook to the polar bear exhibit and think about Alaska. While the crowds can be overwhelming and the stroller brigades tire me out, I enjoy listening to the people around me learn. They’re not in front of a television, they stepped away from the computer for a day, they make the effort to get outside… maybe one day their hands will pour forth words like mine want to.

Highlights of the day included checking out the new “Elephant Odyssey” exhibit, which opened that day and is absolutely breathtaking; watching two baby monkeys wrestle with each other in a manner that reminded me of my cats, Max and Kaiser (I laughed until I could have cried, truly); and watching three juvenile tigers frolic and play fight in their space. We also saw a hippo walk underwater for a very long time, and a turtle from Asia with a freakishly long neck. While Jason was teaching me how to photograph moving water, a peacock wandered within one foot of us!

We’ll be back soon (after all, I have a lot to write), but until then, here are a few photos to share: