I'm coming home from my wanderings. Briefly. I'm sure I'll head back out soon. I'm too restless not to. But what a week for it. Aside from Earth Day (if you haven't planted something yet, get on it), Friday was the birthday of my main man of the mountains, John Muir, a major advocate for …
Continue reading Chasing Waterfalls
Sometimes, when I'm tired, and this world is a little too much for me to take (which, to be honest, is quite often these days) I like to play amongst the flowers. I like to tread, barefoot, through the grasses, allowing the thorns to catch in the lining of my dress, implant themselves into the …
The GPS read a 15 mile distance. 45 minutes. In Alaska, there's no such thing as a quick trip anywhere unless you're talking the quick trip I took over my unlaced boots. We'd driven this road eight or nine times in the last two days and my brother was growing tired of me pulling onto …
Continue reading Exit Glacier is making her exit
The toe of my boot nudged against an errant piece of slate. It slid, tumbling down the mountain's face, down to the waters below, the ones that would grind it down to the texture of the fine pebbles that line the seashore. It's one of those weird moments in which you are suddenly made aware …
Continue reading One Life. One Love.
I love the stars that blanket the sky. Their shimmering surfaces, shrouded in winking flames. Perhaps I love them for the secrets they hold. Born from nebulae, living for millions of years before exploding into a supernova, what a glorious name for death. We become spirits that roam the earth, but they shimmer with the …
Continue reading Starry, Starry Night
There's a strange movement to mountain towns. Like everything in them is made of thick molasses, trickling slowly in summer, frozen into a solid mass of Amber come first frost. People mull about, scattered loosely along the boarded up lakeside docks, bundled up and smoking cigarettes, the thick smoke mingling with foggy breath. Twinkling lights …
Continue reading Amusement for the Soul
The Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Léon never found the Fountain of Youth, but he left one thing in his wake: a little town in Missouri that bears his namesake, about 30 miles south of Springfield. Located on the banks of a tribute that feeds the James River, the town is lush in greenery, and poor …
Continue reading In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
I didn't quite have a plan in mind. I had a map and a free week and an itch that needed scratching. A few places in mind, all of them far away. My trunk was full of camping gear my dogs lounged across the back seat. The windows were rolled down and I felt the …
The Wild Heart of Life 