“If you can change your mind, you can change your life.” ~ William James
explosions
The north side of Mount St. Helens blew off in 1980. For a teenager in Kentucky, the thought of an active volcano was as foreign to me as craters on the moon. When I moved to Barrow, Alaska, in 1985, I flew to Seattle and remember the pilot pointing out Mount St. Helens. It was a fascinating sight, and much of the surrounding area, damaged by the blast, was still visibly destroyed. Fast forward to 2026, and nature’s resilience is obvious, but today’s trip to the north side was far more impressive than seeing it from above. It’s hard to fathom the mountainside blowing off while you’re standing in front of it, filling the valley with 150 feet of rock and debris. We were many, many miles away from the mountain when we stopped the first time and learned that even there we were on the edge of the blast zone. The scale of what happened is nearly unimaginable. Someday, I’d love to return here and to Mt. Rainier to explore the area more. God’s creation is remarkable.
No responses yet