It was the highest point—in more ways than one.  I was in my early teens, and my family and I were enjoying a hiking trip in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  We had been exploring dozens of picturesque trails with breathtaking...

“Colorado’s East Troublesome Fire explodes in size” “Colorado fire grows by 140,000 acres in one day” “Rocky faces long road to recovery from East Troublesome Fire” These were some of the tragic headlines in the fall of 2020, when my beloved Colorado Rockies were...

When I look outside, it appears that autumn is colliding with summer. At first glance, summer seems to hold full sway over the landscape.  The temperature is unbearable, like a heavy blanket draped over the gasping world.  Beneath the hazy skies,...

I remember the day I learned to go further. It was many years ago, and my family and I were exploring the Trillium Gap Trail in Tennessee’s beautiful Smoky Mountains.  Having hiked this trail before, we knew it was a popular route, and rightly...

Spring is singing its song, and the chorus spreads throughout the world.   Grass is racing along the hillsides, igniting every hill and hollow in green.  Birds are soaring in from the south—the bushes and trees that were so silent in winter are...

The breath of the January afternoon is cold on the back of my neck.  I shiver and burrow my hands deeper into my coat pockets. It’s no wonder I’m chilly, because I’m sitting cross-legged on the ground, among the silver stubble of dry grass.  I’m...

“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world,” averred actress and model Marilyn Monroe.  When I consider my own favorite pair of footwear, I couldn’t agree more.  Admittedly, they’re not the chic flats or stylish pumps or stiletto...

This is the silent season. There’s a quiet in the winter woods, a quiet that’s not just heard, but felt.  The frogs are slumbering in the mud.  The clacking drone of insects has stilled.  The leaves no longer rustle on the denuded...

Winter is on its way. Each year, the season sweeps down from the Far North, like an ancient king deigning to visit this land.  The sky unrolls a carpet of silver clouds for his advance.  The trees stretch their bare hands heavenward in...

If we make ourselves small and still—then the turning of the seasons can be a turning of our souls.   The pageantry of summer has drawn to a close, the lilting melody whispering away into the dreamlike hush of these dwindling days.  Contrasted with...

This is the season of acorns. Every fall, I encounter them, a familiar note in the symphony of the autumn woods.  I roam the arching corridors of the flaming forests, shuffling through the papery carpet of fallen leaves.  And there, rolling about...

Nature’s green is giving way to a palette of a thousand pigments.   Every hue scatters across the forest floor, like clippings of color drifted down from the easel of the Great Artist.  The tones dance all around me—blazing scarlets, bold goldens,...