The Moon As a Kite
USA

The Moon As a Kite

As the year comes to an end, I’ve managed to find yet another place to leave a piece of my heart. How can there be so much to love in this world? After finishing up a second season with Naturalists at Large, I took a canoeing trip with co-worker friends down the Black Canyon that basically rocked my world and spent the following week playing around in my old stomping grounds back east. Following a cozy Thanksgiving with family I then landed in Big Sur, where I pitched my tent to volunteer at the Henry Miller Memorial Library.
Continue reading “The Moon As a Kite”

The Littlest Birds
USA

The Littlest Birds

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am- a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breath deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.    -Edward Abbey
Continue reading “The Littlest Birds”

Janglin’
USA

Janglin’

…Back there it is so difficult and desperately important to find a reason for staying alive. How else should a person go on living? Sheer misery makes one profound. But here there are no problems, mere thinking becomes a game, existence needs no justification. A person discovers: the world is beautiful, and life is brief. -Herman Hesse
Continue reading “Janglin’”

Thin Line
USA

Thin Line

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music- the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself. -Henry Miller
Continue reading “Thin Line”

La Belle Fleur Sauvage
USA

La Belle Fleur Sauvage

Yosemite is such a flirt! Views for days, meadows that glow gold, plunging waterfalls. It had been awhile since my last visit to the park, yet I still had that fluttery feeling in my stomach while driving in, proving once again just how easy it is to fall in love with places, and that true love can last a lifetime.
Continue reading “La Belle Fleur Sauvage”

King and Cross
Iceland

King and Cross

Welcome to Iceland, There is no sunlight, You are on fire, A demon takes your face… Come to Iceland, And give us your eyes. 

I sang that song a lot during my week in Iceland, much to the bemusement of my two road trip companions. Iceland was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be- which is to say slightly strange and strikingly beautiful. I had extended my layover in Iceland months before, but aside from Google-imaging ‘Iceland’ and ‘northern lights’, had done very little actual travel planning up until a few days before I was set to leave. Luckily through Couchsurfing I connected with a Norwegian gal who was about my age and a travel baby from France, and we decided to split the cost of a rental car to road trip north along the Ring Road for a week. I will try my best throughout the rest of this post to remember/ not butcher the names of places we visited, but a few months have already passed and one of the hostels we stayed at was called Grund í Grundarfirdi,Grundarfjordur, so no promises.

Continue reading “King and Cross”

USA

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

Continue reading “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”