-
On Dog Pond
*This is a descriptive piece reflecting on one’s arrival at a special cabin in Vermont. Route 14’s twisting pavement finally relents at a juncture near the old general store. Most drivers speed by, completely unaware that Eden is a mere mile and a half away. Responsibilities draw them elsewhere, distracting them with errands and burdens.…
-
Running
Each step allows the runner to shed some of yesterday’s skin. Muscles burn and joints ache, but the mind is at ease. There’s nothing to do but move forward, marrying the patter of steps with the panting of breath. At first, the two are awkward together, like nervous freshmen at a high school dance. Rhythm…
-
2023: Year in Review
On a brisk evening in October 2022, I took a long run through my Denver neighborhood, listening to nothing more than my labored breathing and some wandering thoughts. Elizabeth Gilbert, the best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, was fresh on my mind after I’d just devoured her book Big Magic—an insightful self-help text on harnessing…
-
Edging Closer to Nature
When was the last time you watched the celestial brilliance of a starry night? Or the last time you witnessed clouds peeling apart like curtains in a theater? Have you sat and watched the moon recently? Or have you taken a walk through the woods? I’m home for the holidays in Northeast Pennsylvania, and like…
-
Comfort and Fear
I spend much of my time wondering what constitutes the “right” way to live. I ask myself what counts as wasting my time and what metrics, if any, matter in life’s measurements. To clarify, the “right way to live” should obviously feel subjective, and it’d be shortsighted and egotistical to suppose a universal approach. But…
-
Bhutan — Part 2
I’m alive here. Mountain air rushes through the caverns and folds of my chest with each inhale. The pinch in my upper back has finally released and it feels like I’ve stolen the shoulders of a younger man. My mind is light, as if the strings of attachment have been snipped from the world’s yanking…
-
Bhutan — Part 1
*Below is part 1 of a subsequent piece I’ll publish next week, detailing the feeling and essence of Bhutan as a traveler traversing its landscape. I want to write about Nepal and share the wonders I saw during my recent visit. I want to describe the sensation of seeing my first rhino in the wild…
-
Snow Leopards
*The following is from my journey to Ladakh, India, in March 2022, in search of snow leopards. The morning sun crested the eastern ridge of the Sham Valley, warming the contents of its path as it moved. It peered through windows, past half-closed curtains, and pried sleeping eyes from the last bits of dreaming. Legs…
-
Morning in Kathmandu
It’s 2:44 a.m., and shifting my weight from shoulder to shoulder refuses to lull me back to sleep. Jet lag has shut the doors to my dreams, telling me it is time to stand and face the day. I’ve collected fragments of sleep en route to Kathmandu from Denver—dozing off somewhere over Greenland, and once…
-
Back to the Himalayas
“Pinch me” moments do exist. Even after 20 years of serious traveling, select destinations still send a tidal wave of electricity pulsing through me. This week, I’ll fly to Dubai, then onwards to Nepal. And while returning to Nepal after a 13-year gap excites me, it’s the next stop on my trip that steals my…
Stirring Point 