No matter the time of day, I love laying on my blanket in the middle of a field and staring up at the sky. While you are the one that walks through the forest to create movement, the sky appears the exact opposite. Only when you lie perfectly still can you track the movements of…

  A few steps beyond my front door and I am engulfed in a swarm of leaves. The wind lifts their lifeless yet multicolored selves off of the cold ground and they swirl around me. My hair flies all around me, caught up on the energy of the wind. I am part of the experience,…

Oh man, do I wish autumn lasted longer. Or that the days were longer within the season. I cannot get enough of this absolutely perfect fall weather that we’ve been having. I mean, driving to work every morning I think this must be peak and then the next day is even brighter and more full…

Ahhh, foliage. The air is crisp and clean as the humidity literally vanishes into thin air. The trees, once a vibrant shade of green, begin to mute and change, dying off before our very eyes. Once almost all the same, they now show their differences to us, the varieties within varieties, as each turns at…

  Stepping into the conference room, I look down at the ring on my finger and know that I can do this. If you haven’t figured me out already, I am an introvert. I do well with one person or two, but an entire room or bar full of people sends my heart to pump…

  This will be an adventure, I thought as I pulled into the boat launch. Well, it looked like the boat launch but there was no water to be seen anywhere. Not like that commercial where the water is drained from the ocean because a tidal wave is coming. No, a great fog had settled…

Walking in the woods reveals truths, connections I’ve been here many times before, but today it’s a secret adventure. I slide my foot through the ferns, trying to find a solid placement for my foot. The ground is still quite a bit muddy even though it’s been dry out lately. I find a solid bit of…

  My fingers move of their own accord, tightening the straps while I press the lever open. I pull just a little bit more before letting the strap fall and wrapping a backup knot. I let both straps fall into the car and shut the door, hopefully keeping the straps from flapping around and breaking…

  I cannot see much, just the white and yellow lines of the freeway swaying here and there around the mountains. “Coyote,” by Joni Mitchell, is stuck in my head on repeat as I watch those lines, matching the lean of our bike to the rhythm of the road. I ride 2UP (pronounced: two up), which means…

  There’s a cradling, a sense of calm that takes over you as the water moves gently beneath your boat. A soft bounce that you can feel almost immediately as you step foot into your craft and shove off from the shore. You almost don’t need to go anywhere, you can simply float in place…

  I knew the shape of the box. I could feel it, even though it was wrapped in the traditional Christmas paper and technically looked like all of the other boxes underneath the tree. But my sister and I, we just knew what would be in those 3-inch thick boxes. It wasn’t the right shape for…

  Taking a deep breath, I gently lowered my canoe into the water, making sure to accomplish that without making a splash. Trying to keep my feet from getting wet, I rotated back and forth, gathering the items I had placed on the shore and carefully placing them into the canoe. My life jacket hung…

  I might have missed the Flood of 1927, but I was here in 2011 and heard the boulders screaming as they scratched against each other as they flew down the mountain. I heard the Roaring Brook roar with all its might as it catapulted itself down the mountain. I saw the water turn backward under…

  We pulled up our bright white socks, the old school mid-shin kind that in my dad’s day might have had two red or blue stripes at the top. We pulled them up high, over our jeans and then sat down to put our sneakers on. Well, not too high, but just enough that there…

  The red, white and blue ribbons flutter behind the young girl as she skips along the parade route. Her hair glistens in the sunshine and she laughs with joy. She holds a thin stick, not quite a baton, with wrapping paper ribbon attached with a bow, way too much glue and curled with a…