“I must go in, the fog is rising.”– Emily Dickinson

Due to a persistent fog on Cook’s Inlet, I was unable to fly out of Bear Camp on Friday as planned. This gave me an extra two days with my travel group to hang with the bears, drink coffee, do yoga with our sous chef Brandi, and to marvel once again at how lucky I was to be enjoying such a remote part of Alaska.

That was Mature Mary speaking.

But Immature Mary was tired. Immature Mary was cold. Immature Mary wanted to get to her next destination and have a martini. By Friday immature, spoiled, petulant Mary wanted to post her blog, wash her hair, and wear clean dry clothes. Immature Mary didn’t want to look at any more bears.

Inconvenience is as much a part of life as anything else. So I repeated the great words of Ryan Holiday over and over to myself as I watched fog envelope the inlet, preventing my departure:

Is this going to keep me from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, and straightforwardness?

Well, no, it shouldn’t. But it did. I held it together pretty well, considering my lack of patience, but I could have done better. Much better. Life is a journey.

Catch you tomorrow.