Some days, weeks, years, and decades seem difficult.
I think, at heart, I am a simple person. I believe what Scout told Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird, ” I think there is just one kind of folks. Folks.” I am having a hard time holding to that ideal, or, more precisely, getting the world to accept it. So what I do is cling to the ground to help preserve my sanity (or at least a bit of equilibrium). My ground includes the bugs, the bindweed, and the first tomatoes in my garden. More fundamentally, though, I am thinking about the wild (more or less) places I have been lucky enough to hike in.
I had been planning to write a post about the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service. For a few minutes earlier today, I thought the topic was too light for this day, week, month, and year of violence, ethnocentrism, demagoguery, and hatred. I dropped that thought almost immediately. I believe also what Thoreau said, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
Enough words. Below are a few photos of some of my favorite places within the National Parks system. May we have peace (I still believe in that ideal, too).
Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park
Congaree National Park, South Carolina
Mesa Verde
Widforss Trail, North Rim, Grand Canyon
Canyon de Chelly
fritillary, Yosemite
Grand Tetons
Lava Beds National Monument
Needles Overlook, Canyonlands
Chisos Basin, Big Bend
Shenandoah National Park
Lava Beds
Close to the Ground: Living Inductively 