If you’ve read my vow for this year, you know I am trying to “not purchase anything I don’t truly need” However, when I met Dottie Leatherwood – a gifted painter with the rare talent for capturing an experience and bringing it to life, I began to think about one possession I might just want after all …
Alaska
Skunk Cabbage
Skunk Cabbage is the first sign of spring along the streams of Alaska. It sticks its green head up from under the melting snow to welcome the return of the breeding salmon. When you look closely at the plant, the inner most leaf, around the flower, is bright yellow and the plant has a flower on a tall stalk, like a staff. The Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska respect this special plant and understand how it is hitched to everything else.
Namasté in Alaska
My wife and I journeyed to Southeast Alaska for a week in late May, traveling among the many islands on a small expedition ship. Each day we went ashore by Zodiac inflatable boats to a remote cove or inlet. I found Namasté connecting me to my surroundings in ways I had not previously experienced or even thought about.