Every spring starts in my living room in February and March. I collected seeds all last autumn, a compulsive habit born of years of desire. Rambling about, Juniper and I inevitably see something— “Oh, my god, I want that!” I say, pointing to an unfamiliar plant. “Mom, you always say that!” she teases… Thanks to […]
Geneviève Villamizar
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching out: The key to life
Returning West as a young adult, two things blew me away: its screaming blue skies and the alkaline pungency of its landscape. My entire physical body recognized both as home; deserts and mountains were the playground of my earliest years. In the weeks before moving onto campus, I gathered armfuls of tall western sage, rabbitbrush […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: What is it with winter?
All the other other seasons are linked together by bearable, warmer temperatures, tethered to things that are “alive.” We play, we gather, we grow. Days are longer, more sensual. Winter is different, almost separate, in a way. It’s here, truly, and I don’t hate it. The white stuff is sticking around, “cleaning” things up and […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Outsiders wanting in
Arriving in the dark, we parked in a cloud on mud tracks amid falling rain. Visiting family in a tiny Central American mountain town, population 250, our minds were blown — because we’re moving here. Driving through third-world towns and villages, along ridges and valleys cloaked in rainforest, I was keenly self-conscious of the tables […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Hunting for balance and meaning
Seeing other trucks at the BLM access opening day darn near derailed me. We parked, anyway — mere yards from a rotund, older hunter glassing the opposite ridge — as if. Jittery, we donned our gear and requisite blaze. Walking past a bend to the secret trailhead, seven more trucks squatted roadside. Gah!! This was […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Call it out
Scanning the shelves at Lowes, I was already overwhelmed —parts, shapes, sizes, prices; the big box fluorescent lighting; high, industrial ceilings made for raucous acoustics. Through it all, I could hear kids giggling, and then, their dad. “That’s it! You [f-ing] kids, if I have to tell you one more time! You never behave! You […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Lessons in life are seasonal
Decades ago, I lay in my childhood bed watching my Love’s sleeping eyes twitch, the orbs within, racing. He’d moan, or start, and toss. We were recent graduates, road tripping the States in pursuit of a new landing place, our undetermined adult lives ahead of us. We’d met climbing; he, a carpenter, me a landscaper […]
Posted inColumns, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Magic of the Lost Trees
Once upon a time, a young woman typed the last of data into a computer at a desk in a cubicle back East. The saltwater coursing within her ached to lap at shores of earth, to kiss the trees and touch the sky. She encountered masters on her new journey, with whom she studied the […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: What could be more important?
I assumed it was a sobriety check and downshifted. My truck was packed for camping and a bluegrass festival; I would drive through the night. Emergency lights split the darkness, spinning and flashing on a scene so horrific I gasped at the sight. A cow elk — her eyes wide, head thrown back — and […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Branching Out: Living into our dreams
I was a teenager already studying architecture in high school, and I wanted nothing but New York City. I wanted to live on a boat in a marina. I dreamed of tailored mini skirts; long, fitted blazers; and three-inch slingback heels. I would zip about in my charcoal gray Mazda RX7 with stick shift, tinted […]