Windsurfing: Alaska

These photos are actually from about five months ago. Maybe four. I had to leave the house - to escape - my mind was going crazy from being cooped up and I was still mourning the loss of my life as I had known it. Parenting is no joke - having a baby changes everything. I never knew it would change me at my core though; like, I figured yeah, I'll stop working, I'll stay home, our situations will change. I never stopped to consider how my heart would change. It's been 6 months of home-stay and I'm still mourning my old life. Getting up and going to the coffee shop when I felt like it is a luxury I no longer have. To go to the grocery store is such an ordeal that I'll eat ramen for six days in a row for every meal just to avoid braving the store with the baby.

When I saw these guys out windsurfing in the bitterly cold wind, I had to pull over on one of the most dangerous highways in the US just to watch them. (The Old Seward Hwy) As their surf sails caught air and picked them up many feet off the water and they came crashing down onto the surface, only to catch a little wave and jump it, I felt a sense of peace wash over me. This was like life. We catch air, we crash, but we land it. We end up in the water sometimes and have to get back onto our surf boards, but all that work pays off when you feel the wind fill out your sails and you're lifted high off the water. The sense of accomplishment is so much headier than you thought it would be; all the sludge from the day falls off of your body and your smile returns.

Keep pushing forward. Keep getting back on that surfboard. It's hard, but it's so worth it.