I’m not a Catholic, but I felt the loss of Pope Francis. I’ve been reading Thomas Merton lately, and I think Pope Francis was that kind of Catholic. They rejected certitude and coerciveness in religion. They supported a more tolerant and inclusive Catholicism. There was healing in their message, at least for me. Toxic Religion…
Having a Kansas Moment I hate driving through Kansas. I can see many heads nodding in agreement. But I do love road trips. I’ve driven out to Colorado several times. Three times in one year during the pandemic. It took my back six months to heal up from those road trips. Why do I dread…
My First climbing Experience The first time I used a climbing gym was in 2002 at Rockport. My climbing partner and I did the initial training for belaying on Top Rope. There were no auto-belays then. Auto-belays are like a tape measures that you hook onto and it retracts as you climb. But, if you…
Several years ago, I was invited by Quest For The Outdoors to share my adventures in Canyonland National Park. So much fun. People were amazed by some of the facts about Canyonlands. It’s about 350,000 acres, which is about half the size of the state of Rhode Island. And it’s remote. The Maze District-Range Station…
I’ve never done Black Friday. Do we even call it that anymore? I looked into the origin of Black Friday, and it seems to have originated in Philadelphia in the 1960s to describe the heavy traffic and crowds that occurred the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, it has been a way for retailers to indicate…
I have a few specific memories of the fifth grade. We lived in Elberfeld, Indiana. My father had purchased horse stables, which he confessed years later, was a big mistake. I have the memory of ending up in the hospital after being trampled by a horse named Valentine. We had a coal furnace, and I…
My first exposure to the phrase “Upside-Down World” was from the series ‘Stranger Things.’ The “Upside-Down World” in that series was a world of monsters and life-threatening phenomenon that were pretty damn scary. What is the “Upside-Down World?” Here’s an internet definition: An “Upside-Down World” refers to a situation where the normal order of things is…
Do you ever feel like you’ve lost your way? I was hiking in the Jefferson Memorial Forest a number of years ago. My favorite trail was the Mitch McConnell Trail (MMT). I know, I know everyone hates him. The right and the left equally hate him. Maybe hate is too strong of a word. But…
My mom was mostly healthy up until a few weeks before she died. She had hypertension. It was managed with Meds. She had a-fib, and it was mostly managed with meds. I think that’s all. But she was prone to fall. The older she got the less stable she was. She had the senior wobble….
If you’ve hiked out west, you’re familiar with Cairns. In Kentucky, you follow a Blaze. Typically Blazes are white marks on trees indicating that you’re on the right trail. There are different colored Blazes for different trails. Cairns are used to mark a trail when there are no trees, in places like the desert or…
