If you asked me my favorite holiday, I would say New Year’s Eve. Not that I stay up late to watch the clock, but there is a collective sense of optimism. There is champagne! Hugs all around! Hitting reset on a new year moves us all psychically forward. I am humbled by all the good fortune and generosity I encountered in 2020, but I am not immune from the tedium, frustration, and general anxiety that has permeated all of our …
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Sometimes you need to go to the edge of the continent and see absolute vastness on the horizon. Feed your skin cells with humidity, and walk through a forest with ferns and soft dirt. The Oregon coast is particularly striking, with dramatic rocky formations, and quickly changing weather. Our dog Emma, now 14 and on her 14th life, sprinted around the open sandy beaches. Mack sniffed the tide pools and watched the gulls. We explored the coastal forest, fished sketchy …
Everyone has stories about the times we are living in, from frustrating to heartbreaking, and no one is immune from the pain in the ass that is 2020. I want to be one of those people that believes we simply need a change in the calendar and everything will return to happier times, because otherwise how do we find equilibrium? Will things start to seem a little more normal in 2021? Feeling beat down by a lack of satisfaction, resolution, …
The summer of 2020 has pushed people to be outside. This is great! People should spend more time outside. For those of us who crave solitude in the outdoors, however, we have to be even more crafty and adventurous to satisfy that itch. Luckily, RK and I have maps and atlases, 4WD, and a pretty good sense of curiosity. Also, we really like creeking. Fly shops in Central Oregon will send prospective trout fishers to the Crooked River, the Deschutes …
Horse Butte is a small red cinder cone a mile from my house. There is a trailhead there, otherwise it would just be another one of dozens (hundreds?) of buttes that pop up from the ground for miles to the south and east of the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon. It is topped with a scraggly ponderosa on the south and a row of healthier trees, mostly junipers, to the north. When I am out on the trails near my …
I live in a bubble at the edge of the forest, but that bubble still exists on earth and I am not able to write anything lately that doesn’t feel beside the point. But I do think it is appropriate to say a word of thanks to those people that have shown graciousness and generosity in the spring of 2020. A season when people went from months of isolation and fear of an invisible threat to rage and collective action …
I rarely run with anyone other than my dog, Mack. When I am getting dressed to run he doesn’t wait by the door. He sticks with me as I brush my teeth, pull on a jacket, get a drink of water, up the stairs and back down, until he is out the door, assured of going with me. He bursts to the edge of the porch and surveys the situation in the driveway and yard, alert to the smells in …
Spring in Central Oregon is untamed, unfriendly, and moody. Not just wild but downright grumpy. Like a cranky old man being woken from a too-short sleep, his dinner burning, his chickens being bullied by coyotes, neighbor cats pooping in his garden, and his truck with two flat tires. Still, he takes the time to walk to the fence line and ask how you are*. It snows even when it is sunny. Squalls are on and off for days. The wind …
With strokes of luck and intuition, RK and I ended up in the perfect place. We can observe the Milky Way in the night sky with owls and coyotes as the soundtrack. The forest is just down the street, where we know the trails so well we have even named some of the rocks. The neighbors aren’t always perfect, there are faraway gunshots heard from the buttes, but this is the wabi-sabi in our lives — something to notice and …
Recently, on a morning run, I used a stick to lift a dead kangaroo rat off the trail. The white belly fur was vivid in the dawn, long back legs outstretched, tail curled into a U, the body stiff and frozen. Later, at home, I lay on my back stretching and saw a small dark moth on the ceiling. As I watched, it released its grip and fell to the floor, much faster than a creature with wings should fall. …
Years ago, when I surfed, I was seduced by an empty ocean and paddled out to surf on water that was rowdy, powerful, and dangerous. …
We found Emma in a circus tent filled with border collies and “lab mixes” at a pet adoption event 12 years ago. While dozens of dogs barked, smiled, wagged, and encouraged us to pick them, she was curled up into a spotted brown ball in some wood chips, very much not into the situation. When she looked up at us with eyes that were a mix of white, blue, and brown (we soon learned that catahoulas commonly have such eyes …
Aside from the abundant wax current blooms, which count as flowers, of course, but as tiny and pale pink as they are, do not satisfy the flower itch, the first wildflower that I spotted this year was a scrappy little white thing alone in the dirt. I loved it! And was secretly worried that someone was going to tell me it was invasive, not native, not a wildflower at all. I did a little research and feel safe in my …