Most of us can look back on life and think, “Yeah, that moment changed me forever.” I’m grateful for those moments, because they reconnected me to the natural world. I […]
Branching Out
Branching Out: So excited for seed season
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 […]
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; […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]