In July of 2010, I packed up the high heals, dishes, handbags and stress and traded them for hiking boots, down coats, 4 wheelers and a different pace of life.  With no cell phone reception where I live, the iPhone plan got canceled.  The car was parked, the bike loaned out, the condo rented and my “life” as I knew it went into boxes and shipped back to Idaho and my parent’s garage.  After two weeks notice, I said good-bye to Tacoma and Seattle where I lived the past six years and was on a bush plane headed to my summer job working at Lake and Pen Air. Little did I know it would become my home.

There are 165 year-round residence, about 40 of whom are youngsters, so we are a small, tight community.  With no stores, no movie theatre, no restaurants, we get very creative with making our own entertainment and becoming each other’s restaurants.  I was welcomed in by many families and I am blessed to now have an incredible Alaskan family.  I almost can’t imagine life without them.

My life couldn’t be more opposite than the last six years I spent in the bustling city, but it has become my new normal.  The slower pace of life feeds my soul.  Being surrounded by constant beauty and ever-changing seasons is a delight.  All though I loved the city and all it had to offer, the small town life I knew as a child is where I feel most alive. The Lord opened all the right doors to get me here and I have been reaping the blessing ever since.

 So this is my home.  My new life.  My new normal.  A week doesn’t go by when I haven’t gone on some outdoor adventure, when I haven’t baked bread, when I haven’t had a meal at another family’s house, or dispatched an airplane to a near-by village. I count my blessings regularly and try to soak up the moments and realize where I am in the world, and that life is pretty good!

Alaska Anna