What a day to be together
And what a sky of blue
And what a day for holding hands and
Bein’ with you
Or
Now my heart hears music
Such a simple song
Sing it again the notes never end
This is where I belong!
So you can rev’ her up, don’t go slow
It’s only green lights and alrights…
Some days you don’t need a whole lot. We become a strange kind of domestic out here. We wake up, we share breakfast, we go to work – pretty much like everyone else. The only difference is that work for us tends to be a bit more…exotic than other places.
It’s true that after a while – sometimes a long while, sometimes a short while – you get tired of the blue floors and the white walls (which the guests never see, their part of the ship is lush and carpeted and beautiful, ours…well it’s functional), and you start thinking that maybe, just maybe that it’s time to move onto other pastures. Not necessarily greener ones, just other ones. I’m not quite there yet, although I’ll admit to being able to see the shadows of white picket fences and bright blue doors lapping at the corners of my daydreams.
But that doesn’t change the fact that our lives out here have a peculiar kind of magic, there is a painful kind of freedom to being rootless; when the only thing anchoring you in the world is the people around you, and the person whose hand is in yours.
Which sounds awfully melancholy considering that the Alaskan sunshine has long since burned off the morning chill and I actually had one of those beautifully calm days where you really don’t need anything except a sidewalk to amble down and someone to talk to. Oh and ice cream, ice cream always helps. So do toasted bagels with smoked salmon spread (man that stuff is rich..), oh and hematite, and Disney/Alaska t-shirts that just happened to be on sale and in my size…I am easily pleased.
I will admit I was somewhat afraid to come to Alaska; it always brings me big things, new friendships, old friendships, occasionally friendships that completely change the course of my life (I met Amras in Alaska…just as an example). Careers shift, hearts change, silences break (sometimes with near painful results), silences start…I never know what the season may bring waiting for me at the bottom of a glacier.
But this season? Despite the fact that there have been a few moments of feeling like I was tumbling out of a tower in a Tarot Deck, it seems that what was waiting for me was all good things: acceptance, sunshine, oceans like glass, hematite…and chocolate chip mint ice cream.
It’s really…all about the ice cream.