Category: nature

  • A Culmination / mythologies / Maybe being jaded isn’t so bad

    A Culmination / mythologies / Maybe being jaded isn’t so bad

    Some life points are more pivotal, more decisive than others. Things build over time, a culmination of moments, hours, days, weeks, months. Sometimes things can brew. Sometimes fragile things grow. Sometimes there are thin spots, where every moment feels intimate, fleeting, leaving one in gratitude. Moments that only happen because of a drooping openness, a…

  • search for a righted world

    search for a righted world

    I don’t remember ever being so frazzled by travel before. I’ve usually really enjoyed the adventure as I made my way somewhere new or familiar. This time was different. Even packing and cleaning my house before leaving and making arrangements felt more laborious than ever before, almost like I’d never packed before in terms of…

  • Going places

    Going places

    The PAM has lofted a new program called VR to Go, where one rents a pre-programmed Oculus headset for a weekend. It sold out fast, I reserved a headset in November for this past weekend. The friend I shared the rental with drove us into town on Friday to pick it up, we watched it…

  • Peaks & Valleys

    Peaks & Valleys

    Last month, for the first time since February 2020, I boarded an airplane. The Delta variant had just started to kick up, but my backpacking friend and I took every possible precaution. We had booked campsites in advance as well as kayaking and boating expeditions. We used a rideshare app called Turo to book automobiles…

  • the brain as it is

    the brain as it is

    Sometimes one rolls all the way back down the mountain in a snowball of old junk, into old realities which block out the new and sabotage hopes of renewed peace. What I’ve had to acknowledge is that through some of my experiences, my brain changed and I have to be continually mindful to manage it…

  • “Juliette Balcony”

    “Juliette Balcony”

    Life has begun to move here again, with vaccines in bodies, the sun and spring blossoms compelling people out of doors, the optimism of beginnings of recovery under the Biden administration. For me, this has meant that it’s time to move. I’m lucky to have the circumstances surrounding it be amicable with plenty of lead…

  • Things one carries

    Things one carries

    Some injuries almost a decade ago forced me to reevaluate how I move in the world. It was a small miracle by an extraordinary surgeon and a lot of PT work that I’m able to walk again. Coming that close to losing my mobility and the access it allows compelled me to vow to use…

  • Mount St. Helens

    Mount St. Helens

    Last week I went to see the Mount St. Helens exhibit at the Portland Art Museum during the typically – but that evening especially sparsely – attended Friday evening open hours. Just afterwards, the museum closed for at least a month but now probably two in order to help flatten the curve. Because this means…