April 11, 2026 through May 06, 2026

Kathy Radie • North of the Arctic Circle

NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

Above latitude 66° 34′ North, the boundary of the Arctic Circle, you begin to understand that there are no edges, no boundaries that feel permanent, just distance, weather, and time.

Emily Dickinson’s poem “As if some little Arctic flower” imagines a flower traveling from the freezing “polar helm” to a warm summer, likely symbolizing one’s journey of emotional and spiritual awakening as we venture beyond our personal boundaries.

My years living in Alaska afforded me opportunities to travel in the opposite direction, heading into the “polar helm”, refocusing my “thoughtful eye” to appreciate and find elegance in the simplicity, silence, and natural lines of beauty above the Arctic Circle.

My travels allowed me to take in the grandeur of the Porcupine River, during a 300-mile arctic river float trip with just one other hardy traveler; traverse the ice trails and visit native ancestral hunting grounds off the coast of Barrow, Alaska, and venture to eastern Siberia to visit the Chukchi people and their Reindeer herds.

The vastness of these areas above the Arctic Circle, which can fill you with awe and wonder one moment, can suddenly shift to apprehension as you remind yourself how far you are from help. Beauty and danger become intertwined. A misstep, a storm, a wrong decision, and you could vanish into the same silence that makes the place so compelling.

And yet people live here. They raise families, hunt, travel, laugh, and endure winters that swallow the sun for months and delight in summers that carry the sun in slow circles across the sky. Their presence is a quiet testament to resilience and deep humanity.

At first, the Arctic feels empty. But the longer you remain, the more you realize it is anything but. Life persists here with a quiet determination and renewal: a fox crossing wind-etched snow, a line of caribou threading the horizon, flowers pushing through lingering snowbanks, and tiny figures in a distant boat, navigating the shallows of a river, proof that life endures even in the harshest margins.

There are places on Earth where the landscape feels like scenery. And there are places where it feels like a presence. Above the Arctic Circle is a presence.

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