The new location - and the home of A Spit in the Ocean - is Homer, Alaska. It is located at the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, about 600 miles south of Fairbanks. Homer sets at the other end of the road, at the land's end. It is a small, progressive, green, artsy town nestled on Kachemak Bay, with a population of about 4,000 people.The area teams with moose, and the biggest bears in the world. Whales, otters, sea lions, halibut, salmon and trout swim in the waters. It is home to the second largest bald eagle population in the world, and serves as a stopover for over 10,000 birds during the spring migration.
It is a place where time ticks at a different tock. The newspaper only comes out once a week, and the paycheck only comes in once a month. It is a safe haven, a place where no one gets murdered or raped. There is no Wal-Mart, and Anchorage, the nearest city of note, is 225 miles away. By its proximity, Homer fosters an entirely different sense of sufficiency and dependence - that of commercial fishermen, and artists.
The changes of time and tide bring us grace, and a form of faith has washed me up on the shores of a spit in the ocean. I feel inspired, awed, and humbled by the opportunities set before me.
There is a sense of familiarity to the feeling, but it is difficult to discern: like a whisper, like a dream, like a shadow, like a memory, like something forgotten or lost along the way...
I can only open myself to it with the wonder and acceptance of a child.
And it feels good. It feels like the embrace of god.
- photo by The Fool.