I live and write on Lingít Aaní, and gratefully acknowledge the past, present and future caretakers of this beautiful place, the Jilkaat Kwaan and Jilkoot Kwaan.

That’s what my daughter JJ said when I said I really need to blog but I don’t what to write about because there has been too much going on. I chose a picture of her son Henry and Chip and the dogs at “dog cheese” hour. Everyday Chip measures out cheese and apples for himself and three dogs and hands them out in a circle so they all end up with equal shares. Now he’s added Henry ( age 1) to the loop, and Henry’s biscuits. I know it’s funny that I can’t write because there is too much happening.  I was in Anchorage for an Alaska arts conference in a fancy hotel downtown with a meeting room named for Haines,

in Juneau for Mother’s Day at the beach with James and Molly,

Back in time for a heat wave, Ivy’s birthday party and the cherry blossoms,

 

There has been gardening to do (all at once it seems) and cycling too ( the Kluane to Chilkat is less than  a month away) and with JJ and the Littles here it’s hard to be at my desk. Do you ever feel that time is passing so quickly that you don’t want to miss a second? We had the Hospice Rummage Sale too- which of course makes me think about what we keep and what we toss or give away and what’s important in the end. It is not the really big things that I will miss when my seasons change, but little moments– like Henry trying to catch a fly,

or the kids running up from the beach– the same scene that has graced how many summers in this house?– looking like newer models of the their parents? Tonight is high school graduation. I hope the speaker doesn’t only tell them all to get out into the world and pursue their dreams. I hope he or she ( I don’t know who it is) reminds the seniors that when they are done looking around, come on back home, or at least visit often   — because there’s no place like their own backyard.