Category: Mountains
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Something I have found since getting clean and something I now practice every single day is gratitude. Please don’t think I say that lightly either. Gratitude has really changed my life in ways I never could have expected or imagined. In my younger years, especially during active alcoholism and addiction, I didn’t feel grateful for…
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I haven’t written anything in a while because we were traveling. It’s so good to be back home! I turned 60 yesterday. That number sorta makes me pause for a moment. Not out of fear or anything like that, but out of reflection. Sixty years of living, learning, falling down, getting back up, and continuing…
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Some mornings, the path isn’t a windy mountain trail. It’s the distance between your bed and the bathroom. It’s the weight of your tired arms and legs, the fog in your brain, and the familiar ache of a tired body. Today is one of those days for me. I’m writing this on very little sleep,…
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It was cold and windy yesterday as I took my daily walk. Very cold. But unless the weather is utterly unbearable, I walk. I even walk in the rain here. For me, there’s just something about being in and surrounded by the mountains that heals me and clears my mind. After I complete my rounds…
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Those who’ve followed this blog (and my previous one) know I moved to New Mexico from Texas six years ago. But if you’re new here, welcome, and here are some thoughts that popped into my head today. One of my sons and his wife are currently visiting Texas. Next month, my wife, our youngest son,…
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Do you believe in miracles? If you do, what qualifies as a miracle in your view? A lot of people think of miracles as something enormous, events so extraordinary they seem to defy all known laws of nature. That’s certainly one way to understand the word, and for a long time, that’s how I understood…
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One year off benzos today. Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever see this day. I was told, flat out, by doctors and pharmacists that I wouldn’t. That after more than twenty years, at high doses, this drug would always own a part of my life. Yet here I am. This has been the most…
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I grew up being taught that meaning, comfort, and salvation came from believing the right things about a (to me) distant God. Defined in ancient books, filtered through doctrine, and guarded by rules. I tried, for many years, to hold those beliefs. But they never “took” in me. Instead, they made me feel boxed in, anxious, and…
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It’s far too easy to become distracted by everything that’s wrong in the world. So easy, in fact, that it can blot out everything that’s still good. With so many news companies competing for our attention, we’re inundated with headlines from the moment we wake up, unless we take steps to protect ourselves. For me,…
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I’m back home in Santa Fe after spending a week in Texas visiting family. Seeing everyone again after so long was genuinely wonderful. Family almost always is. But Texas itself, at least the part we were in, hasn’t changed except to get worse. Internet speeds still crawl just barely above dial-up (not a joke), the…