This is a spot I’m lucky to visit often in the winter; a photo never does it justice, but I think this is enough to let you know it’s pretty stunning. There are mountain vistas, surging peaks, deep, saturated hues of blue and green. When the sky is clear, the sight from this point is striking and gorgeous; I can gaze …

Y’all – it’s the last day of 2020. What a time warp this year has been. There are times it feels like we’ve lived three years since March and others when it feels like just yesterday we were dancing at a February wedding. I always want to say I’m not a New Year’s resolutions person, but in reality, I am. …

You need not stay the same. You have permission to grow, to change, to shed belief systems and lessons and memories that no longer work for you. You have permission to examine what you’ve been taught—or the things you’ve learned that no one was consciously teaching you. Those seem, in my experience, to be most important, actually. You are the …

The election is next week. Policy and government is important. Using your voice in alignment with your giftings and values is important. Standing up for those unable to stand up on their own is important. I have nothing unique to say about any candidate—nothing you haven’t heard a thousand times in a thousand other voices. I don’t think anything I …

I paused and asked—maybe even out loud, though there was no one else to hear—“Why is this so hard?” “Because of the weight you’re carrying.” Oh. Wow. This was day two of a three day backpacking trip and I was mid-trudge back uphill after an unexpected washout made for a much tougher climb that I had expected. I had spent the last …

At the end of July, Jon turned 30, and I gave him a fancy raft to take backpacking. I promise he really wanted it—we had a birthday trip slated for him, but closed borders meant we deferred that adventure, so alas… a fancy raft! Part of what made it a great gift was that I had pretty much no interest …

This past February, I got sick–like really sick–about a month before really sick would have meant a sprint to a COVID testing site, and I fell quickly into feeling a little hopeless. I wanted to believe there was something to be learned from feeling this crummy–maybe a lesson in remembering how incredible “normal,” healthy days are — but I didn’t …

The smoke is heavy. It’s come late to us this year in Washington, and it’s bad. The past several years, smoke from wildfires has fallen heavy over the area for months—earlier than September to be sure. This Summer, I’ve felt lucky that fires and smoke have steered away from Washington for the most part, allowing us to hike freely and …

You are only confined by the stories you tell. You can be nearly anything. You can change and grow and evolve, and last year, week, or decade’s you does not have any power over you today unless you’ve decided they do. You are becoming at every moment. You can have suffered trauma and be healing. You can learn new things, have new …

This is one of many views I’ve been chasing down this Summer. In the Pacific Northwest, we have a few precious months of perfect hiking weather. (Don’t @ me, mountaineers.) Those few, magical months feel full of possibility, wonder, and unspeakable beauty. I get great joy taking photos of the trails we follow and the mountaintops we reach, but exactly …