An awe inspiring view tempered by heartbreaking need.

Sometimes I marvel that with all the people and places in the world, I somehow won the lottery and was born to the parent's I was and in the place I was.  I am truly grateful for both of these things.  But sometimes life gets busy and it can be easy to take things like our family and our state for granted.

Today I was reminded of how lucky I am to be in Alaska.

I was driving to the weigh in for the weight loss challenge I'm taking part in, and I was caught by the beauty that was happening right in front of me.

I live in Wasilla which has its share of wind, but Palmer is about 20 minutes from Wasilla has quite a bit more.  Today was one of those days in both Wasilla and Palmer and looking at the mountains that surround us both, the wind was blowing the snow off the edges of the mountains. 

It was about 9:45am and the sun was in just the right the spot that it was catching the edge of the mountains and the snow that was blowing off of it.  After being awed by the view for the majority of the drive I finally thought to pull off and take a picture, but by that point it was only the very edge of the mountain that was still "glowing".

Here's a somewhat pathetic glimpse of what I was treated to by Mother Nature this morning.  It is a pale comparison to the reality, but it's hard to capture and hold onto such beauty.

 

After being treated to such a majestic sight, I was brought back down to reality at the grocery store when a young boy approached me asking for money so he could get some food.  I don't carry cash, but I did give him the lunch I'd just purchased and then afterwards, after he'd thanked me and left to get a fork from back inside the store, I went looking for him to see if I could give him some more of my groceries so he could eat at least for a few days, but was unable to find him.  

It makes me heartsick to see homeless children, especially in a state so unforgiving weatherwise as Alaska is.

 

Tempted

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything.  I haven't had a lot of time lately, and though I've had a few sparks of inspiration for blog posts, I haven't had the energy to follow through on them.  Excuses, excuses.  I know.

I think part of the problem is that I've felt like I actually had to have something deep and important to say, but then I realized that when I started this blog, I said a lot and most of it wasn't deep or important.  A lot of times it was just fun, or whatever was on my mind.

Remembering that rekindled the a spark.

So, my friends are doing their own version of the biggest loser and I agreed to join them since they were starting a new round this last weekend.

It started on Saturday, and of course I started immediately, stopping by the grocery store after I left my friend's house and got apples, oranges, eggs and pickles to eat as healthy snacks.  But I find the moment I can't have something, even if I didn't want it before, I desperately do now that I can't have it.

The first couple of days I decided TV was out for the next 10 weeks. (That's how long it's going for.)  Commercials are the enemy.  They are busy trying to sell tons of yummy looking food.  Food that makes losing weight impossible.  Even the commercials for food I don't like suddenly made that food sound amazing.

Towards the end of the week I was heading to the grocery store again to pick up some more healthy snacks and healthy dinner makings.  It was slow going because that day we'd gotten a nice dusting of snow and the plows and street sanders weren't out yet. Here in Alaska when it snows or is icy we "sand" the roads and parking lots.  It's not really sand, but small pebbles.

   

The parking lot of the grocery store had been "sanded" already and with the mix of the white snow and the dirty pebbles, I was amused to find the whole parking lot looked like a big gallon of cookies and cream ice cream!  I'm not even a big fan of ice cream, but I did steer clear of the frozen aisle to keep from picking up a thing of cookies and cream ice cream.

But, after all the temptation, I made it through the week and at my weigh in this Saturday, I was down four pounds!

The commercials aren't bothering me this week.  Hopefully the weather will also be kind and not provide any further temptation!