Earth Day 2021

I look out at Earth's architectural towers rising from the valley floor, its foothills building like stairs into the wild. These mountains wear their cut-in roads like belts across their middle, and I suddenly crave the places where no road goes. The places where paths are just hallways of pines beckoning me into the folds of a crinkled horizon. I would throw myself at the mercy of the wild just to let its shadows rest on me. And there in the shadows, a shiver might urge me to find the places where the sun might greet my face again. I'll explore these depths, these rises, and the intricate detail of beauty that lies between them. For the journey outward is as much a journey inward, both wild and unexplored. This wild, not designed to be conquered, but only an invitation to be vulnerable to its beauties and its dangers. Therefore, I'll take this earth in my hands and pull myself upon the peaks, not to stand above it, but simply just to brush my fingers through the sky. This, my truest and most profound love which we've named The Wilderness.