Staying in Boulder for two weeks worked out thanks to Joe’s hospitality and my own need for daily yoga, “job thinking” and space. The majority of my time was spent taking fitness classes, watching half a season of Firefly and pirating internet from Barnes and Noble (and sometimes Panera just for variety). Boulder is tucked into the beautiful Rocky Mountain foothills that are glowing with fall colors this time of year, so when I wearied of sitting at the computer, the environment was A+. A quick decision to leave Colorado led me to Mystic Hot Springs - an amazing natural s [View Full Entry]

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Props to Bubba Sparxxx & Ying Yang Twins for the title, well, with a little remix of my own obviously. Time at Shambhala has come to an end and I’m sitting in a Boulder bookstore doing a quick recount of the past weeks. The tent takedown continued as the days got colder, the Aspen trees began to golden and we sensed the imminent arrival of winter. Last week we awoke to a Colorado winter wonderland and spent the morning hiking around identifying animal tracks in the snow. Moose, deer, bear, bunnies, and birds were all happily sharing the land around our [View Full Entry]

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One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself 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 is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while [View Full Entry]

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The Colorado lure continues as I've moved on to Red Feather Lakes, home of the Shambhala Mountain Center where meditation, reading and simple work tasks are the way of life. For six(ish) weeks I’m living in a community of hundreds as a fall volunteer given the task to take down canvas tents in preparation for the winter. Colorado winter at 8,000ft is too harsh for the tents to withstand so each spring and fall volunteers show up to take on the challenge (it is, however, quite unchallenging so far) of setting up or taking down the small housing tents and the [View Full Entry]

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Often the question is: What did you miss most living in the woods for a month? This is an easy question people, easy easy easy. All of the lull moments in the day were ripe with dreams of berries, hot yoga, ice cream, conditioned hair, Blue Moon, unchapped lips and a shower! Sometimes the only thing getting us through the days was knowing in 10….9….8…. days we would be sleeping on couches and smelling sweet. Because believe me, no one smelled sweet in the Sangres. Living in the wilderness for a month forces an intensely intimate connection with the environment and [View Full Entry]

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The world still turns outside of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness! Back from 30 days of wild wilderness work without wash or waterproof boots. Sadly, my leather companions did not hold up to the harsh elements and my final two weeks were spent with copious amounts of ducktape and superglue holding things together. They were unceremoniously retired but I hope to give them new life as flower pots when the occasion arises. But the Sangres -- let me go back -- are the most glorious, majestic and spiritual mountains I've ever explored. Everything feels raw, exciting and alive. Time is not [View Full Entry]

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Gulf Coast Leadership Corps April-May 2008. Partnered with the National Wildlife Federation to restore hurricane-Katrina damaged wetlands, remove invasive species and reestablish wood duck populations. Mostly we just killed Chinese Tallow trees, turned purple and showed up late everywhere. [View Full Entry]

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You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter [View Full Entry]

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Go west! In the open air. . . All visions that take me to the west happen with the Village People in the background enticing me to the peace and openness of the west. I drive across the country, Go west! I retreat to the mountains, Where the skies are blue! It's strangely appropriate that the Village People are the messengers. [View Full Entry]

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