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Quiet Records
One year ago today I started writing daily the words that would become Morning Rounds with my Writing in Community, er, community. Today I had a conversation about writing and why we do so. Why put work into putting thoughts into words and onto paper at all? I’ve been chewing on that, and love asking…
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The things they forgot to tell us
Magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life. – Frances Cornford They didn’t tell us, did theyIn oh all the placesWe would goThere would stillBe dishes to do
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Morning Rounds in Paperback
In March one year ago, I set about writing a book. This started with a writing workshop, which encouraged the writing practice necessary for getting a book’s worth (and more) of words written. Then began the (self-)publishing journey. E-book, Amazon, then the even more tedious road of formatting a printed book. Yesterday my final proof…
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Desire Lines
Winter is the best time to observe “desire lines”, those trails designed and enforced by repeated use. Like-minded and like-footed travelers, if they agree on a destination, can combine forces over time to create trails to benefit all future travelers. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon these deer highways cut through the deep snow…
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Touching the Land
It felt silly when when the idea came out of my mouth years ago. When asked about my life dreams, I looked to the ceiling and tried to put words to it. The image in my mind was of Denver’s front range, and the dream was to interact with those mountains. My tool of choice…
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Howling at Wolves
I didn’t really think it through when we signed up for the Wolf Howl Hike at Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary last week. After work and school we drove out into the growing darkness in the Whiteshell, met up with a small group of fellow headlamp-wearing families, strapped on snowshoes, and trekked out into the unknown.…
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Climbing
Have you watched The Alpinist yet? It’s the story of Canadian climber Marc-André Leclerc’s crazy mountain climbing feats all over the world. Similar to Alex Honnold of Free Solo fame, Marc-André’s climbs featured a distinct lack of ropes or other safety nets (literally or figuratively), but also include the extra fear factor of mixed surface…
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Man Versus Winter
It’s been a wild few weeks in winter-land. Storms on a twice/week basis, snow drifts up to the chin, and temperatures often plummeting down below -30°. As someone who enjoys winter endurance sports, I’ve had a few weeks of self-reflection. Last week I read iRunFar’s article “When is it too cold to run?” which got…
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Drafts
The ebook version of Morning Rounds launched in September, a collection of poetry and stories from my adventures on foot. Since then, I’ve been working (slowly, painfully slowly) on getting it into print. Books on screens are convenient, but there’s something special about seeing your words take on physical form, giving them literal weight. My…
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Weightless
Watched a great adventure doc recently (thanks Semi-Rad for sharing), the story of friends Connor and Steve-O tackling a 14er in Colorado. One interesting way of listening to a story is to ask, “Who do I relate to?” or, “Who am I in this story?” Watching Weightless, I naturally related to Connor, the stereotypical “able-bodied…