The weather here is windy, balmy, sometimes wet. Desert springtime, with flowers popping up all over the place, trees leafing out, streams gushing down from the mountains. Great time of year for hiking, camping, exploring, sleeping under the new moon...
Within forty minutes, the voice inside my head was screaming, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO? I tried to ignore it, to hum as I hiked, though humming proved too difficult to do while also panting and moaning in agony and trying to remain hunched in t...
S.J. Tuohy: [Diagramming an American Football play with cylindrical containers from a spice rack on the Dining Room table] Now, I will be the Running Back... and you show me what you are supposed to do. Ready? Hike. You will block him, he will hit hi...
I hate all electronic toys: cell phones, e-mail, PalmPilots, handheld Global Positioning System equipment, and the whole raft of gadgets that intrude on solitude. When I was a kid I used to disappear into the woods all day. Now I can walk in the wild...
Shifu: [sitting down to eat] After you, Panda. Po: What? Just like that? No sit-ups? No ten-mile hike? Shifu: I vowed to train you, and you have been trained. You are free to eat. [Po sits and picks up his chopsticks] Shifu: Enjoy. [Po lifts a dumpli...
Traveling in a third-world country is the closest thing there is to being married and raising kids. You have glorious hikes and perfect days on the beach. You go on adventures you would never try, or enjoy, alone. But you also can't get away from eac...
What to wear on a Minnesota farm? The older farmers I know wear brown polyester jumpsuits, like factory workers. The younger ones wear jeans, but the forecast was for ninety-five degrees with heavy humidity. The wardrobe of Quaker ladies in their mid...
Have you been walking in the woods in the last few days?" Matt asked. Lola cleared her throat anxiously. What had she managed to do now, catch jungle fever? "We went hiking in the Greenhills on Wednesday. What's wrong?" Her voice sounded squeaky, so ...
God can and does use anything God chooses to get our attention. Who's to say the hawk wasn't sent as an agent of grace to catch my wandering attention and quiet what Buddhists might call my “monkey mind,” which is more often than not swinging wil...
At the lip of a cliff, I look out over Lake Superior, through the bare branches of birches and the snow-covered branches of aspens and pines. A hard wind blows snow up out of a cavern and over my face. I know this place, I know its seasons - I have h...
If I had my child to raise all over again, I’d finger paint more, and point the finger less. I’d do less correcting, and more connecting. I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes. I would care to know less, and know to care more. I...
The game jostled back and forth, and then came the final inning. Some player named Casey came to bat, like his teammates, looking like a rock. Lightning ripped through the air as rain came down in sheets. The scoreboard said the horses were beating t...
Nick, Surplus Store Owner: [showing D-Fens his selection of hiking boots] Let's see what we got. These here are the top of the line. Scientifically engineered and all that crap. Guaranteed by some Sierra Club asshole not to hurt a chipmunk IF you ste...
[after hiking up into the mountains, Shifu and Po stop at a pool of water] Po: [panting] You... dragged me all the way up here... for a bath? [he scoops up some water] Shifu: Panda, we do not wash our pits in the Pool of Sacred Tears. Po: The Pool of...
[Riley is on the verge of tears after attempting to run away back to Minnesota after feeling very homesick] Riley: I... I know you don't want me to, but I miss home. I miss Minnesota. You need me to be happy, but I want my old friend, and my hockey t...
I peer through the spectral, polluted, nicotine-sodden windows of my sock at these old lollopers in their kiddie gear. Go home, I say. Go home, lie down, and eat lots of potatoes. I had three handjobs yesterday. None was easy. Sometimes you really ha...
I felt I was in the loneliest place in the world, and I was apprehensive. Nothing could be heard except the occasional crash of an unknown creature in the forest, and, once in awhile, a deep thrumming similar to the lowest barely audible sound of a s...
Ash: Linda's still asleep. I don't know what else to do for her. It'll be dawn in a few hours so... Scotty: I can't wait. I'm getting out of here... now! Ash: Scotty, we can't take Linda anywhere with her leg like that. We don't even know if there is...
Del: You know I had a feeling that when we parted ways. We would somehow wind up back together again. I've never seen a guy get picked up by his testicles before. Lucky thing for you that cop passed by when he did. Otherwise, you'd be lifting up your...
