Straddling An Ocean

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” -Confucius

Last week in Fairbanks I went out to do errands in a snowstorm. Visibility was poor, the streets were clogged with snow so of course the lanes were obscured, and I knew I risked getting sucked into the ditch if I got too close to the edge. Every time I came back to the parked car it was covered in snow and the ice that had melted on the warm windows and then frozen. I had to brush snow and scrape ice 3 different times so I could see to drive. Such is life in the frozen north in February. I’ve done this countless times in the years I lived here, virtually every winter morning without a garage.

^ My car, plugged in and turned on to warm up before work, back in the good old days…

^ The little log cabin where I raised my family

As you read this, I’ll be soaring over the sea, winging my way to England, and springtime. At the time of writing, there was a 64 degree temperature difference between Fairbanks, Alaska and Wigan, England. (-16f / -27c here and 48f/9c in Wigan, warming up to 54f/12c later… positively balmy!)

In the north of England, the snowdrops have bloomed, the crocuses are up and the daffodils and cherry blossoms are soon to follow. Although the trees have not leafed out yet, everything else will be green.

^ Snowdrops

^ Sylvia Plath, tragic and brilliant American poet/novelist who married Ted Hughes, former Poet Laureate of the UK, was once asked about living in England as an American.

Interviewer: “Now you, as a poet, and as a person who straddles the Atlantic, if I can put it that way…”

Plath: “That’s a rather awkward position, but I’ll accept it!”

I also feel like I am straddling the pond with my feet and heart on 2 continents. Traveling back and forth roughly every 3 months, I have loved ones and homes in both places. This is the life I have chosen but my heart breaks with every goodbye. It shatters, I tell you.

^ How can I leave them?

In order to cope, I have to be philosophical and turn to Irish poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama who says, “I can be nurtured by the earth of 2 places, sustained by both.” I can form a living bridge between my two nations, like a tree root bridge in India.

^ Two living root bridges co-exist in Meghalaya, India, having grown from the same pair of trees, naturally and strong.

I turn my face to the future because I must. There will be beauty and goodness and love because I will seek it until I find it. I will carry my dear ones in my heart always, until I return to them.

Spring comes to every heart and every land. With it comes fresh energy, hope and change. I’m there for it.

“Keep not standing fix’d and rooted, briskly venture, briskly roam: head and heart, where’er thou foot it, and stout heart, are still at home.” ~Goethe

^ Crocuses

^ Daffodils

^ Cherry blossoms

^ Photo by Ron Davies