desert

Ghosts

When we experience the world today, we often fail to recognize the layers of the past that the present is built upon. Yet many of us can remember a time in our lives where we were face-to-face with one of those layers, a moment in time from history, the ghosts of the past demanding our […]

Juniper Trees

“A beautiful thing is never perfect”- Egyptian ProverbIt is impossible to quickly travel from the Grand Canyon’s North Rim to South Rim, a fact I learned while driving toward the North Rim, racing the sun, with a worsening cold. I left Antelope Canyon sometime after noon, intending to drive to the North Rim for views and […]

Now the Joy of My World is in Zion

When I close my eyes, I can see it again, the brilliant red sky at sunset deepening the rich, vibrant, striated rocks around me.  My car following the curves of the road, every new angle making my heart swell even further. Overwhelmed by the beauty before me, the natural wonder I was driving through, tears […]

A Strange and Beautiful Place

Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.-Jack Kerouac, On the RoadAfter a whirlwind week in LA, I was itching to get out of the city, back on the road, hiking and sleeping in the open air. My days at Greenbuild had been inspiring, a confirmation that I was […]

California Here We Come

On the stereoListen as we goNothing’s gonna stop me now- Phantom Planet, CaliforniaMusic has the remarkable ability to capture the essence of a place, or at least the assumptions the rest of the world has of that place. This song, and the rest of the OC soundtrack, captured SoCal for so many of us in […]

Omens

“In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens. God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you.”- Paulo Coelho, The AlchemistI once found omens fascinating, a fairy-tale-like idea that you never experienced yourself. I looked for them, hoped […]

Is this real life?

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons,It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.- Walt Whitman, from Song of the Open RoadMy night in Idaho was downright balmy compared to Yellowstone, the air a comfortable 47 degrees when I set up my […]