Thank you, Valdez...

Valdez, Alaska was beyond renewing, revitalizing, refreshing, refilling.

The surroundings as much as (even more than?) the theater conference.

A great happening, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, don't get me wrong.
Plays and art day and night, giant peaks, glaciers, haunting blue tides...
All of it inspiring, but those snow caps and ice creatures staggering.
Every time I stepped outside, hard to breathe, all that beauty.
The outdoor landscape, seascape lifted up all we did.
Reminded us how much is bigger than ourselves.

Homecoming felt good but then rough with the news.
Rough -- too small a word.
Devastating. Squashing. Broiling.

It's all too overwhelming. Humanity.

Abortion is healthcare. Contraception is healthcare. Healthcare is a human right.
Womxn's rights are human rights.

Gonna go away a little while again.

Go be in bluer states, see ocean, redwoods.

Be around beings older than humans.

And try thinking, feeling more with my animal brain, my elemental heart.

---

Try and regrow my wings again.
So I can think about next steps again.

But thank you, Valdez, Prince William Sound.
Thank you Suacit, these ancestral lands of the Chugach Alutiiq and Sugpiaq people.
Thank you water and mountains and eagles and glaciers.
Stay with me, in me, strengthen my heart, grounding my feet.

Until next time.