Fall in love with being alive
There is a sign in the cabin used as a gathering place for cavers since the 1970s that says: This is about doing something difficult and not stopping when it becomes not just difficult but cold and difficult or cold and wet and difficult or cold and wet and difficult and dark. And here we […]
This is my third time teaching Intro to Outdoor Rock Climbing. Every time comes with its unique joys and challenges. The joys are usually to do with the climbing and the challenges are usually the students. Kidding, just kidding. What I love about teaching outdoor education is the single minded focus on tasks. There is […]
I’m about to work 7 days a week for 20 days straight. What lays ahead are work days that are 15-16 hours long. I will have a regular day job, an evening job, a weekend-long job, and be responsible for the lives of 8 other people on a camping/climbing trip. So this weekend I went […]
I! Am! Halfway! There! On Friday I hiked Cathedral Rock Fire Tower. 2.33 miles, 259 feet elevation gain. On Saturday I hiked Tabletop and Phelps. 13.15 miles, 3,855 feet elevation gain. On Sunday I hiked Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois. 11 miles, 4,386 feet elevation gain. On Monday I drove back home. 261 miles. A friend […]
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Poem says: You, sent out beyond your recall,go to the limits of your longing.Embody me. Flare up like a flameand make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.Just keep going. No feeling is final. I was thinking about this poem a lot this weekend. I […]
We’ve been married 6 years. So I made him spend two days doing some things I love. In them I hope he understands all of this: “I want movement, not a calm course of existence. I want excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I feel in myself a superabundance […]
just to be aliveon this fresh morningin the broken world.– Mary Oliver, Invitation This weekend felt serious. Though my climbing plans fell through and I worked at the climbing gym instead of climbing outside. My parents rented a boat and instead of a nice day on the lake, we got rained on and ended up […]
I have been adventuring hard, but not this weekend. This weekend I ran some errands, I had some quiet nights. I went to the drive-in. I watched Hallmark Movies with my mom. I went out for breakfast and watched a friend ride his bike by on a 60 mile “Tour de Keuka” fundraiser ride and […]
Sometimes you just know a thing will be perfect. Like driving to Indian Lake on a Thursday night after running a 5k in Dorchester Park and the sky is beautiful, and the roads are quiet. Like having climbing crags all to yourself, beautiful hikes, swimming holes, golden hour on an abandoned golf course, and enough […]
I’ve never been to Vermont. So we decided to go to Vermont. We stayed in an old farmhouse, we hiked, we climbed, we ate a lot of cheese. I thought about how regular life is so much lacking in these simple things that I wish I could have all of the time. Time outside, easy […]
