-
The Right Path
Lately I’ve been reflecting on a recent read, On Trails, by Robert Moor. Looks like we’ve got a little impromptu series of posts going, you can read other thoughts from this book here and here. This book’s cover, even in its Dutch form, drew me in last summer, and this winter I finally had the…
-
Conversing with the Land
What’s the difference between a trail and a road? Trails, our original routes of travel across the land, follow the contours of the landscape. Along the winding stream, around rocks and trees, weaving up the side of a hill. Roads, on the other hand, cut through a landscape. They carve the most direct path from…
-
Three tools
In middle school jazz band, I learned that good jazz wasn’t produced through an abundance of notes, but a few well-placed ones. Teenagers enthralled by the capabilities of our newly-acquired instruments and rudimentary skills, we each were tempted to compensate for our lack of skill by playing a flurry of notes. Our director threatened to…
-
This is Nature
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins (along with her late husband, Doug Tompkins) worked to establish conservation areas stretching millions of acres across Patagonia on the southern tip of South America. I was inspired by an interview in the documentary 180° South, where McDivitt Tompkins (possibly quoting Gary Snyder?) stated, “You can’t protect what you do not love.”…