Open Thread – Home Sweet Home
~Sunrise over the mountains heading out of Anchorage
Hello Mudflatters! I am officially back on Alaskan’s frozen soil. It was a difficult week as I traveled back east to attend my mother’s funeral and burial services. I will tell you all that the overwhelming number of messages of love and support I received here, and on Facebook, and via email and Twitter left me speechless. Every time I “checked in” on some electronic device, to some form of social media, there you were – and a whole new crop of messages. It really helped during some stressful moments, and your presence was felt. So, thank you.
And a huge thank you also to my incredible friends and co-bloggers Shannyn Moore and Linda Kellen Biegel. They did all of the heavy lifting while I was gone, during a tremendously tragic and news-filled week. The knowledge that the Mudflats was in good and capable hands let me take some much needed time off.
After two canceled flights, lost reservations, and a full day of travel… I am home. You can expect The Mudflats to sputter to a start again over the coming week as things get more back to normal in my crazy life.
I’ll share a few photos from the air, as I usually do when I’m lucky enough to get the window seat.
Welcome home, AKM. You and your family are in all our minds. Hang in there.
Our moms are always with us-everyday something will bring her to your heart in some way.
We all missed you and thought of you and from those of us whose moms are no longer here with us physically,
thank you for making all our moms live again thru your memories of your own wonderful mom.
Big hugs and welcome back!
Every day will be a little bit easier than the last. Surround yourself with good friends and neighbors and think only good thoughts. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Thank you, dear people….you are fabulous, and I am honored to read your thoughts and opinions.
Thinking of you during your time of sorrow … thanks for thinking of us!
Glad to have you back AKM, so sorry for loss of your mom. It gets better over time and the good memories remain comforting as the pain recedes.
Welcome back, AKM – I thought of your lovely story of your mother and her pet ants tonight (I have a spider in the shower since September – no idea what she’s living on).
I love flights over the mountains – thanks for the reminder picture.
Welcome back, AKM!
Your photo reminds me of the awe-inspiring words John Gillespie McGee chose for the following poem. I know he wrote about flying his airplane, but
his words give me such an uplifting, free feeling of pure joy…as though my soul is flying over those mountains and into that sunrise.
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air;
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark nor even eagle flew;
And while, with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Fl. Officer John Gillespie McGee
I’m glad you’re back, AKM. 🙂
John Muir beat me to it: “How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
A reminder, I’m sure, of why you’ve chosen Alaska as your home.
We’re glad you are back.
Welcome home, AKM.
Travel’s fine, if I could just take my bed with me.
Sleep tight.
Welcome home. Your week away may make you love it the more. (((Hugs)))
Welcome home Mud….
Glad you took the time to take care of your family… It’s VERY important… all the time…
Condolences for your loss….
I am sure you are glad to be back home.
As you have undoubtedly noticed, and all of us who have lost one or both parents know, your mind and heart will be cluttered with background conversations going on for a goodly while. Retrospection is not necessary a bad thing for all of us to go through now and again. We never stop growing up, growing wiser.
Life is always a work in progress.
Glad to have you safely back home. I’m sure that was a bittersweet journey for you, with grief mixed with lots of reminders of your wonderful Mom. Take care of yourself and set your own pace for things; no need to rush back to “normalcy”.
Welcome Back Jeanne!!!
Welcome home. So sorry for your loss. I know your heart is full of the love and good times you shared with your mother.
Welcome back!
Welcome Home! Condolences for your lost!
Welcome home, dear friend, and hugs for you and yours.
Happy you made it back safely!
Here’s Alternet’s take on Failin’ Palin:
http://www.alternet.org/story/149522/is_this_the_end_of_sarah_palin_as_we_know_her/?page=entire
“We wish tragedies like this weekend’s never occurred, and no result of them can ever be seen as a positive. But it’s a time-honored truth that adversity brings out a person’s true character, for better or worse. For Sarah Palin, it’s definitely been for worse. She won’t disappear, but she may have lost some unearned stature that should have been sloughed off long, long ago.”
And here’s more from Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/story/149469/what_the_right_gains_from_poisoning_our_political_discourse_and_inspiring_violence?page=entire
You’re back!!!
Welcome home and welcome back to the caring circle of your devoted mudpuppies. We missed you and kept you in our thoughts and prayers while you were gone.
Shannyn and Linda did a great job of keeping us informed, connected and well-behaved (well, mostly!). Thanks to you both for coming through during a difficult week.
Rest up, AKM, and revel in the warmth of a giant mudpuppy group hug.
Welcome back, Jeanne!
For my part, please don’t feel obligated to review any more of Palin’s latest. She is beneath contempt, and while we need to keep watching her moves, I don’t think any of us need to waste any more time on the pile of crap she brought forth.
exactly.
ditto. also. too. *waving from Colorado*
I TOTALLY AGREE! Don’t wade through any more of SP’s BS, we’ve all gotten the drift.
Welcome back to our wonderland!
M. Paul
Welcome back to Alaska, Jeanne! There is nothing better than returning home.
Welcome home. We all have various ways to grieve and cope with the loss of a cherished family member. Ifound some comfort in wanting to believe there really is a place called Heaven and some people are deserving of a place there. I just don’t necessarily believe it is for me. Linda and Shannyn have done an excellent job while you’ve been away. True blue friends are hard to come by. You are truly blessed to have such good friends.
Welcome home AKM. Hope you find peace in the beautiful countenance of your adopted home, as I’m sure you did in the bosom of your family back east. We admire your co-bloggers, but missed you nonetheless and look forward to your words of wisdom and wit.
Welcome back AKM!!
Bill Maher is back on HBO and AKM is back at the ‘Flats. All is right with the world!
You were missed and thanks for sharing your momories growing up with your Mom. You were one of the fortunate ones!!! Awesome…..
Ooops, memories….but perhaps momories works also, too.
I loved for “momories ” !
“momories” couldn’t be better!
Speaking of “momories”… Years ago my sweetheart took me out for an anniversary dinner at a super swanky supper club; a pianist and singer entertained the diners.
Halfway through our appetizers, we realized the supper club had skimped -mightily- on the entertainment; after performing three different songs, they’d repeat their “favorite” for our listening pleasure. All . evening . long! Unfortunately, their “favorite” song was the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic from “Cats” and it was rendered by the two of them as: “Mammaries.”
To this day, I cannot listen to that song without ending up in uncontrollable fits of giggles. beth.
That’s wonderful..!
Momories is perfect! I shall co-opt it for my mother, who has a huge project labeling all the old photos that were sent here from her house in Washington.
Beyond despicable
http://lynnrockets.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/despicable-tea/
White trash doing what white trash does….(forgive my manners!)
but what reason can there be for such poor,poor manners…what an embarrassment!
The world continues to watch as Palin continues to fail. I posted a few things on my blog today that you might enjoy (which I’m publishing in order to gain some experience–it’s still very rough, but I’m learning). The blog is supposed to be about international reporting and opinions focused on the US but Palin has been prominent over the last few days in the international press so…. What an embarrassment! http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/
congratulations on your blog OMG. i wish you much success. you have a very good idea and it is so true that Americans need to understand how others see us in our political lives.
LOVE the idea of having views of the US from the outside collected in one place.
One of the things President Obama has seemed to accomplish that I have been most excited about is to raise the world’s opinion of our country and our people. Of course, there are always the Palins to mess up a good thing, but I hope that people beyond our borders realize that she and others like her may get a lot of the press but they truly are anomalies and most of us are much nicer than that!
I think it’s also true that foreign media often has a much clearer picture of the truth that’s not colored by political or corporate influence.
Thanks for sharing the link and best of luck with your new project!
OMG, good for you! I always appreciate your links. pj – love it!
I’ll be checking your blog every day, OMG. It looks fabulous! Congrats!
Your interesting links on Mudflats have always been VASTLY appreciated. I have a slow dial up connection because of my location, and find it difficult to blithely “surf the net.” Your links have made it easier to peruse interesting stories for me. The international perspective will an added bonus. Thanks.
OMG, you always have thought-provoking links. Congratulations on your blog, and the service you provide by letting us see ourselves as others do. I’ve bookmarked it for a daily read.
Many thanks and good on you for setting a good example of gaining experience and for helping me in my quest to “learn something new each day.” You inspire me.
We are lucky to have you and lucky to have you back! Beautiful photo, also, too.
Welcome back!
Welcome back, dear sister. I hope you are ok and moving forward. Thanks for sharing your life with us all, it’s definitely enriched mine.
It’s been a tough tough week for everyone. Let’s all remember each other in our prayers and thoughts plus the people of Tucson, the people in Brisbane, Australia fighting the floods, the people in Brazil fighting the floods, the people of Haiti one year from their own disaster and people everywhere who are suffering today. God give us the love we need to touch a life and bring it grace and peace.
Love and hugs to everyone!
Welcome home AKM! I know that losing a family member is difficult, but losing a Mom hurts deep!
I lost my Mom when I was young. We were close and I miss all the good times we spent together.
I miss being spoiled. There is nothing like a great Mom who was willing to go out of her way to help others. She made a mark in her 54 years on this earth.
We will always miss our Moms, but their love will live on in our hearts forever!
Welcome back, and thanks for the lovely photo. I love seeing a sunrise or sunset from a plane. Not only is it breath taking, but it also gives us such a different perspective of the land where we live. Just awesome.
Welcome home AKM.
Welcome home, AKM.
Good news on the green energy front, mudbuds:
“India Claims Asia’s First Tidal Power Plant”
by Jenara Nerenberg Fri Jan 14, 2011
“Atlantis Resources has inked a deal with Gujarat Power to build a 50MW plant in the Gulf of Kutch. A “mega marine power project” could combine offshore wind and tidal power sources.”…….
http://www.fastcompany.com/1717156/india-gets-asias-first-tidal-power-plant
Hello Scout! Muchos hugs to you and yours.
Warm hugs always appreciated, and blessings to you and yours, Irish!
What a beautiful bunch of people! There is little left to say except my heart is happy knowing you are home. Rest in the arms of the familiar and take your time, we’ll wait just knowing you are home.
I hadn’t seen this letter from Media Matters to Sarah Palin before:
“In your video, you predictably blame the media for libeling you. My view is you and your right-wing conspirators have gotten off easy. Most in the press dismiss the import of your words as careless constructions or run-of-the mill political phrases, presuming you do not understand or mean what you say and do.
“But I know what you do. We are just off a campaign cycle in which you and the Republican candidates you supported raised the prospect of armed revolt if Washington did not change its ways. Much of your message centered — like the Tea Party moniker itself — on imagery of armed revolution and existential clashes in which the freedom of our country is at stake. This is a lie.
“You and Beck and Limbaugh pander to the margin of the margins, employing whatever words win you contributions or ratings, the consequences be damned.”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101120039.
Thanks for the link. I can only hope that some on the right see it, but I just don’t think they look at anything that might challenge their views.
Thank you for sharing that!
Welcome back! Even though we were in able hands we missed you. Please give yourself the time you need to heal.
I echo all the sentiments expressed here. You were missed but mudflats was in good hands with Shannyn and Linda. The more I visit here, which I do daily, I am beginning to feel I know each of your “regulars” as though they are my close personal friends. They speak so beautifully. I always look forward to KS Sunflower and The Crow Woman especially, but they are all wonderful and the leader of our pack is the most wonderful of all. Welcome home. It was my home for 45 years and although I now live in the “land of enchantment”, I get my Alaska “fix” on your blog and it takes me back home.
I second that about the regulars. I have had the good fortune to have met many of the regulars in the States (some of them twice), and they are even nicer in person.
Irishgirl – Hello to you from the original “michigander” (commented above @20) . I am puzzled by another michigander (@12) on here. Can someone register with the same name? This seems a bit confusing! How could that happen?
I’ve been a mudpup since early on (’08/’09) but due to personal circumstances last year I’ve seldom had time to read comments or post. Apparently I missed a new me!
Who is the new michigander? I hope you are a nice person and that this is just a weird glitch.
Irishgirl, can you email me or does AKM have to? I don’t want to bother her with this at this time (nor anyone at anytime for that matter) but it probably should be addressed.
Please respond and email me when you can
Waving hi from the half way point between Detroit and Port Huron.
Glad to see there’s other Michiganders on the site.
anyone can call themselves anything , including the same name as someone else.
The “unique” signature is the “quilt” or other wordpress default picture – which is associated with a unique email…
We can tell the difference by the quilt 🙂
as well as the ” voice “
You mean we could ALL be michigander?
Thanks for the info – and I hope you remember me in a good way. I do like my snowflake, especially in these hard times (o:
yes we ALL could , slip! but we wouldn’t make the same soft landing as our original mich always does…
some of us, like you and me, always land all of a heap and giggle…
welcome home AKM.
missed you at the same time I really enjoyed Linda and Shannyn .
welcome home AKM
What a lovely photo with which to start the day. Thank you for your lovely photography, and for giving us a friendly, thought-provoking, mindful community in which to gather. Health and peace.
What a beautiful picture, thank – you dear AKM (o:
You and your family have been and still remain in our thoughts and prayers xxxxxooooo
Glad you are all home safe and sound.
Welcome back home and to your next chapter. Or maybe even more like the next book in your life story series. I remember it felt a lot like that after my Mom passed and everything settled back down to the every day routines. It was the same and yet quietly/profoundly different.
Beautiful photo. That color is really lovely.
Happy weekend, All !
Welcome back, and thanks for sharing such a beautiful photo to enjoy this morning.
Glad you’re safe and sound. Next time, don’t bring that AK weather here! It must have felt just like home… wait, it used to be home… never mind!
I echo those thoughts of other posters. I am glad that you had the time to spend with family and am happy to have you back in your land of splendor.
gorgeous picture and welcome home. Sending love
Glad you’re back, Jeanne. Under the circumstances, hopefully all went well for you and your family. The best to you all.
Those flights over the mountains are awesome. Thanks for sharing a beautiful picture.
Things are settling down here in Tucson. Gabby is doing well and we continue to hope for the best. It was really wonderful to have so many notable people here in town, including the President and his wife. They all brought a sense of hope to the community.
Thanks to Shannyn and Linda for sharing their comments.
My sympathies to you & thanks for this beautiful picture.
Welcome home.
I’m glad you are back.
I understand how difficult the last week has been for you
I wish that you and your family peace and acceptance for things that cannot be changed.
I loved reading about your mom, what a wonderful women she was!
Welcome back!
Thank you for the gorgeous photograph of the sunrise. It captures the sense of new beginnings and potentials just waiting to be explored and embraced. It also communicates the sense of renewal and change this blog represents.
The blush of a new day in this photograph reminds me that each new sunrise gives us one more opportunity to release whatever failings we perceived in ourselves from the day before so we can honor those who taught us to love by fully embracing the best things in ourselves, in others and in our world. It is a magical place full of possibilities that only open hearts and minds can appreciate.
Once we do, we have the magic within us and realize that all the love we have ever received is still within and around us, just waiting for us to share it as it was shared with us.
As with so much you and others share in this blog, you give us a chance to see another perspective, to give ourselves the chance to live more fully and deeply through concern and awareness of things beyond ourselves.
I will return to this photograph often to remind myself of this just as I return to this blog to remind myself that there are others reaching out to make sense of the confusion, others who believe that we need not settle for mediocrity or fear, others who want to embrace and nurture the best within ourselves.
Welcome home and thank you for the gift of you.
Take your time. We’re glad you’re home safe and sound. Know that we all hold you in our hearts.
Agreed. Heal. Grieve. We need you well and whole.
hail! it’s so wonderful to have you back home. and although you may be still grieving, know that your friends here are standing by with open arms and prayers in their hearts. looking forward to daily goings all from here on in and it will be interesting to hear your take on the ‘blood libel’ hornet’s nest palin’s stepped in.
Good to see that you’re home safe and sound! Missed ya!
Welcome home! You were missed, and Linda and Shannyn did such a terrific job! I am sorry your flights were so nasty. Beautiful picture, too!
IM has the most beautiful story… sniffle with a smile.
Welcome Home AKM.
Woo Hoo, Momma’s home!
welcome back! looking forward to your insightful and well written comments.