Peripheral Magic

The napkin at Fletchers, Anchorage , Alaska

It is snowing. . .slow snowing, makes you feel like you you are swimming in a sea of stars if you look up long enough. I am in Anchorage tonight and it is the first day of a new month. I pushed out of Fairbanks on the last day of January, it was sixteen below. Today I hear the temperature is dipping to thirty - forty below in the Interior. I smile as I sit here in a city jacket without gloves, waiting for a plane to take me to Seattle - New York - then Germany. A six week trip to break up the winter.

My travels began by meeting up with dear friends to drink too much, dine well and listen to Josh Ritter play a show. He played old and new and a few for the first time. He played in the dark for a song and I could let the tears roll down my cheek in private -- the relief of leaving and the opening of my clenched fists. Sometimes we need to live a little in the dark to find the light.

It was just right and the perfect serenade sung to the start of a trip...

Running into Josh Ritter after the show, Anchorage, Alaska