This summer I had a fearsome encounter with a bear, but no ordinary bear! This was “The Grand Matriarch of the Tetons,” decked out in her shaggy fur coat with four yearlings in tow. A regal queen—and absolutely terrifying! She weighed at least 400 pounds and stood a bit over
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There is no solving the finite issue. Aristotle suggested we not focus on “the end” but ways to flourish in the present. The American psychologist, Abraham Maslov, wrote about the necessity of having “peak experiences,” where present reality is perceived as sublime; the brutal is forgotten for the beautiful—the ordinary
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There is no cure for being human. Sorry! Fasten your seatbelt. It’s going to be hard here on earth. We are going to suffer. We are going to get our hearts broken. We are going to age. We are going to be painfully disappointed by fellow human beings, nature, human-governed
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As many of you know, I am the oldest of six girls. Every morning of my childhood, my sisters and I would line up for my mom to braid our hair before walking to school. In my mother's bedroom, there was a beautiful mahogany armoire, inside were many rolls of
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I imagine for my entire life I will wrestle with these spiritual questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Who is God and what is my relation/relationship to God. Why must we suffer? How do I live a life that feels good on the inside and out; but also
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Are you familiar with the game Jenga? The game begins with a tower constructed with 54 blocks. The object is to remove individual blocks without the tower collapsing. Every time a piece is removed by a player, the structure becomes more unsteady. I find Jenga to be an apt metaphor
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NASA announced that for the first time in 800 years, the two largest presences in our solar system, mighty Jupiter and ringed Saturn will pass so close (.1 degree apart: the thickness of a dime held at arm’s length) creating an extraordinary radiance of light in our dark night skies.
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2020 has been a year of many losses, great and small. Yes, there have been some silver linings and a-ha revelations, but for the most part I think we have shifted into “idle” gear. This past summer, I was charged with driving the Jon Boat so my husband David could
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Like me, do you sometimes find yourself calling out to the cosmos, “What next?” Tornadoes and a worldwide pandemic, racial injustice, political discord, financial insecurity, cancer everywhere, just the regular hiccups that come with being human and in relationships with other human beings. All of it threatening to upset our
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This summer, I escaped to my in-laws home in Wyoming—fishing rod, running shoes, and a collection of old journals in my satchel. For as long as I can remember, I have written down my thoughts, collected quotes that resonate, and scribbled inspiration for new pieces of writing. The idea was
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