I keep my personal website and this weblog alive because I love it and the work that went into it. I have to thank my web hosts for their help with this as well: Life takes you to unexpected places sometimes, and the events of the past years placed me outside of the creative space. Thankfully, I am finding my way back again. Were it not for the kindness of the folks that host my site, it would have gone dark and I probably would not be writing an entry this evening in late August of 2026. Many thanks to them!
Like so many in the world right now, I'm filled with sadness as the warming climate and increasing population trigger a multitude of forest fires. The one close to me, the Frijoles fire near Cundiyo, NM, was started by lightning and fueled by dead or dying trees and powerful winds. I feel a powerful urge to spend more time in the mountain forests before they're gone.
Wherever I've lived and been, I, like so many, found myself drawn to the mountains. Even as once I stood on the shore of the Pacific Ocean for the first time at La Joya, I'd find myself turning to stare at the green foothills to the east.
My mother, who came from the Blue Ridge mountain country of North Carolina, once told me she was drawn to Taos, New Mexico, because the mountains there reminded her so much of home.
As a child, growing up on the front range of the Rockies, I'd relish every chance we had to drive to Denver, a trip that allowed me to stare out the passenger-side of the car at snow-capped peaks and feel the ice-cold wind that came off the Rockies, gathering speed as it moved over the wind-swept plains and rolling hills.
On drives back home from Wyoming to New Mexico, I'd always feel a sense of comfort as I neared Las Vegas, NM, and watched the great plains give way to progressively more pine-covered slope - it made me feel at home.
To quote Dōgen's Mountains and Rivers Sutra: "The green mountains are always walking." To me, this speaks of change and the present moment. Mountains are born of the earth, grow tall and strong, and foster life. They're changed by the forces of nature, for sure, and by each season as it passes. So, too, do they change us as we walk their slops and valleys!
How lucky I truly am to have grown up and spent so much time in the shadow of these beautiful mountains. If life takes me far away from them, may I eventually return.