reasons to spend winter in juneau

Why spend winter in Juneau, Alaska (AK)


My alaskan family
Spending early morning sipping rooibos tea with Mother in the sun room
The family "puppy"!
The family cat, aka "Queen of the Universe"
Warm, friendly, laid back people
"Alaska time" means no stress, but things still get done on time
Going to the movies or bowling with my little sister
Doing the laundry in the new washer/tumbler
Northern Lights (no brainer)
18 hours of darkness on average every day
Juneau Art Galleries
January Sales at Annie Kaill's artsy store
Any class at Rainforest Yoga downtown
Private lessons with Gretchen at Rainforest Yoga
Kundalini Meditation with Hari Dev at Taproot Yoga on Sunday mornings
Midday Meditation at Shambala Center downtown
Lunches at the Hangar watching waterplanes taking off and landing
Breakfast at Paradise Café opposite Marine Park
Sushi at Canton House
Local Highschool stage plays, starring little sister mentioned above
Local University festivals and events
Juneau Symphony concerts
Playing wii at the TV room
Skating on frozen Auke Lake
Walking to the Mendenhall Glacier and back.
Living inside a Rainforest, for god's sake.
Living inside the most northern Rainforest on the planet.
Walking into the divinely smelling Alaska Fudge Company on a windy icy afternoon.
Fresh, still warm slice of Divinity Fudge from Alaska Fudge Company.
Looking up the sky at 4 o clock in the afternoon to a flood of stars.
Again, the Northern Lights.
Going to bed at 9 and waking up at 4.
Snow storms and listening to the chimes in the garden going mad
No electricity due to snow storm
Ordering pizza and watching movies with the whole family spread comfortably into sofas and armchairs
Enjoying a fire in the finnish fireplace
Teaching the puppy not to pull while taking him on a walk on icy slippery road.
Smoked Salmon... clam chowder... oven baked halibut...

Well, why the hell not?

I ve been doing an 8 week fitness challenge.
today was the first day of week four.

It has been far more than just about fitness.

I have cut down dramatically on the amount of time i spent - no, WASTE - online. unimaginable but - yes - i spent time away from my laptop - why, I even go for walks in the forest without taking my mobile phone with me!!

I also say "NO" more often, express my feelings and my opinion loudly and steer clear of lots of unpleasant people without a guilty conscience.

Back to the fitness part now.

I've been working towards the goal of holding a 30 min light jog by the end of the 8 weeks. I need a new goal though as already managed to hold a jog for 30 mins by the end of the third week. Should I train towards a one hour jog (increase duration) or a half hour run (increase intensity)?

Today I went up a nearby hill for a short hike. I had spent most afternoon lying in the sun on my balcony. When I was going up, everyone else was coming down. I was on the top before it got dark, having all the beautiful sunset colours for myself.

When I came back home and started tidying up and emptying the extra room, for which we found a flatmate who he is moving in with us this week. As I was moving a bookshelf and its contents, an amazing thing happened, some folders slipped from my hands and there were my beginner's italian, french and german books all spilled on the floor.

my first thought was: I still have these?
second: why do I still have these?
third: I'll never need those beginner's books again!

fourth: O-M-G - those beginner's books look so basic to me now that I am advanced in those languages - biology and maths will look so basic to me when, in another ten years' time, I have my degree!

Yes, this beautiful moment when I spilled some beginner's books on the floor and realised how familiar and self explanatory the knowledge within them looks to me now, gave me two things:

firstly, a pile of books to bring to the second hand store
and
secondly, a whole new perspective on my current study subjects - by the grace of god and lots and lots of more all nighters studying, I shall one day look back with my practice licence on the wall and by some miracle think genetic code biology and random variables statistics sound so very basic.
(I know, i know... dream on, right?... but that's the same thing some people said when I wanted to be fluent in multiple foreign languages one day!)

And then I send some tears and went to sit zazen.

Bless you.