Finding a Natural Balance
What is the difference between the adrenaline-stirring adventures that we love—like rock climbing, kayaking, and skiing—and what we call "natural disasters"? How do urban botanic [...]
Nature-Based Ceremony: Beyond Belief and Non-belief
As wilderness guides who do not promote either belief or non-belief in divine beings, it might be difficult to understand why we include self-initiated ceremony [...]
Saudade (Longing for the Wilderness of the River)
There is a word in Portuguese that describes the feeling of longing better than any word in the English language. Saudade. (Pronounced Saw-dahd-gee) There is [...]
Emotional Relationship with Nature
If you are reading this, you might be familiar with the fruits of a personal connection to nature —nourished by the memory of a tree or [...]
Absence of Fear: Facing Seemingly Unending Rain
I feel like the weather gods have abandoned me. I watch the sky spit out rain, tornadoes descending next to my rivers… flood warnings, lighting [...]
The Best Summer of My Life: Realizing a Vision
Credit: Larry Kniskern Last summer was the most amazing of my life. It was a summer of a dream and a vision [...]
A raging storm on the Colorado River
Staccato. At the start. A low rumble, a suggestion. We pay attention. We set up a shelter and start a camp fire. The rumble gets [...]
Wild Geese
I've been appreciating my life so deeply in the last few months. A friend just sent this poem to me, and it touched me, as [...]
Pinyon Juniper Scrublands
A cool wind blows through the pinyon juniper scrubland, and I think of my senior friend who passed last summer. "She had an extreme, ecstatic [...]
The Somatics of Emotion
Have you ever noticed what happens in your body as you experience different emotions? Do you know what it feels like to be grounded, centered, [...]