Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:15:48 PM
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"Perfect Actions"

Arctic Sunrise

Patiently Waiting

An arctic sunrise is something few people in life every experience due to the fact that these kind of sunrises only occur in the most extreme north or south polar regions of earth. I consider myself quite blessed to have lived in the extreme north for more that 12 years.

The arctic is no place for people who are prone to depression. By nature we begin our days at sunrise and end them at sunset. If we get out of synch with this cycle which is part of circadian rhythm we begin to have many problems. In the arctic this manifests as depression called “cabin fever”. People stay inside all the time trying to avoid the dark and cold and eventually have psychological problems in the form of a monstrous depression.

This problem can be fought by getting out of the house at 45 below zero, strapping on some cross country skies and hitting the trail with a very bright head light to spot the moose that many be on the trail. Another essential thing is to get together with the locals who arrange folks dancing and good home brewed Celtic Music. Wow we all work up a good sweat as we swing and dance for hours. When everyone gets too hot we step outside and there in the -20 cool nights we stand together watching the steam from our perspiration rise up towards the shimmering colorful aurora dancing overhead.

Yep it was a combination of daily physical activity no matter how cold it got in conjunction with community activities that became the elixir of life in the arctic. Yet with all the activity, by the time you enter the forth month without light you feel like your going to lose control of your ability to hang on any longer. I wrote a poem that I think sums this feeling up quite well. It is entitled, “ In The Light Of The Midnight Sun”

Why do I write this story now when I'm living on a subtropical island in Korea ? Well it simply because what I have been experiencing since about September 1st is exactly like the feeling of trying to wait out the end of an arctic winter. I have no explanation for why I should be feeling like it's that time of year in the arctic just before the sun should first appear after being hidden for so many months.

This could be my own personal internal battle to wait out the first dawning rays of the warming sun that has been hidden for so long. In Alaska we had to wait three months before the first rays began to melt the snow all around. If this applies here in Korea then my winter began on September first and I can only begin to look for hopes the sun first rays sometime in December.

Just like back in Alaska it has been a tough wait and very common to think you will never be able to make it until you realize that friends are knocking at your door inviting you out for some community activities. This is pretty great! I think I will go get my bike and ride up the volcano in the night and depend upon my new very high intensity halogen beam head light to light my way to the top of the mountain to look at the stars before I go to bed.

  The Bike Ride

I left my room unusually late around 8:30 PM after enjoying coffee at 5:30. I figure a little exercise before bed might be good.  I began my trek up the volcano ascending out of the din of the city and all its lights.  It was a good slow steady climb as the night air grew cool and crisp with altitude.  After about an hour (which included a stop off at a small gymnasium where a few boys were having a basketball game) I continued my up hill journey.

 

The beam of the halogen light was great matching in brilliance the lights of on coming cars.  After nearly an hour I reached mystery road that appears to be an up hill road when in reality it is a gently skoped down hill road; one only need stop at the bottom and let off his brakes and he appears to roll up hill.

 

Some stars could be seen through the cloud cover and the evening was peaceful.  I stopped to look at the time and my watch read 9:27 PM.  I them pushed the button to get the atmospheric pressure and at the altitude of mystery road my altimeter read 995 pHa or an equivalent altitude of 153 meters or 501.9 feet.

 

I aimed my bike down hill and began to peddle hard gaining speed as I made a powered decent off the volcano. I don’t have a speedometer yet but I know that I was moving with the cars having to break at times to slow down. As I quickly got down into the realm of city lights and traffic I had to start watching the street lights to be sure I didn’t run into traffic.

 

With the speed of a car and the agility of a sparrow I flew in and out of traffic until I was on the main street heading back to the river bed and the quiet road near my apartment. Wow it was all over so quickly.  I checked my time and my watch read 9:35 and the altimeter read 1017 pHa or an equivalent altitude of -14.6m or -47.5 feet (unusually high air pressure as 1012 is near normal sea level which is about where I’m living.  At any rate,  the total altitude gained was 167 meters (or 510 feet) up the volcano over a period of time that took about an hour but 8 minutes on the return.

 

Well I’m pleasantly beat after the exercise and need to get some rest.

 

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It Begins In Light

English Lessons

from the days when

Meaning was Conveyed Gracefully

 

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.--GAL. vi. 16.

 

Lord, I have given my life to Thee,
And every day and hour is Thine,--
What Thou appointest let them be;
Thy will is better, Lord, than mine.

A. WARNER.

 

Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into His service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at His disposal, and ask Him to make and keep you _ready_ to do just exactly what He appoints. Never mind about to-morrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it to-day, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful, when to-morrow comes, to ask Him to take it also,--till it will become a blessed habit to hold yourself simply and "wholly at Thy commandment for _any_ manner of service." The "whatsoever" is not necessarily active work. It may be waiting (whether half an hour or half a life-time), learning, suffering, sitting still. But shall we be less ready for these, if any of them are His appointments for to-day? Let us ask Him to prepare us for all that He is preparing for us.

F. R. HAVERGAL.

 

© Bill Watterson

Gotta Have Happy Memories

 

This One Has To Be The Best Yet!! Ha

 

© Bill Watterson

Thank You Bill Watterson; Live Forever and continue to Prosper !!!

My E-mail: al7mi@yahoo.com

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