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Bear Confusion Syndrome: The Emergence
There is a moment that arrives every spring here in the Adirondacks, usually sometime in April, usually without warning, when something shifts. The air changes. The light feels different on your face. You step outside and realize, with a small jolt of disorientation, that you feel alive again.
And then, almost immediately, comes the confusion.
You look back at the past several months and wonder: who was that? Who was the person who moved through the days in slow motion, who gained a few pounds, who responded to perfectly ordinary situations with a kind of gray, low-grade grumpiness?…
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When the Trail Grows Quiet: Just Move
Glimpse Ahead: There is a place many thoughtful people arrive at in the middle decades of life; not a crisis, not a failure, just a subtle quieting. Your life may look full from the outside but feels somehow flat from within. In this article I introduce Just Move, a new free eBook written for exactly that experience. More than a book about physical movement, it explores what it means to move – through the body, the mind, identity, emotion, and spirit – toward a life that is genuinely inhabited rather than merely managed.…
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Living Affirmations: Words That Walk With You
A new book is out and this one has a long history behind it.
There’s a moment many of us know. Something stirs. A restlessness without a name. A quiet sense that who you’ve been and who you’re becoming are asking for different things. It might arrive through a transition, a loss, or simply the accumulating weight of a life not yet fully lived.
That stirring is the beginning of something. And it rarely feels comfortable at first.
Living Affirmations: Mindful Steps Toward Inner Growth was written for exactly those moments and the journey that follows them.…
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What We Leave Behind on the Trail: The Art of Releasing
Glimpse Ahead: Sometimes what we find on the trail teaches us about what we leave behind. In this reflection, I explore how presence and movement creates space for release and how letting go makes room for what wants to emerge. But all leaving behind is not the same. The different ways we leave things behind matters.
The Bottle’s Story
This spring I was walking a familiar stretch of trail through the woods when something caught my eye. Nestled in the foliage beside the path, not thrown carelessly but apparently placed there, sat a bottle of iced tea, a Stewart’s Convenience Store, “Refresher.”…
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Encountering the Unexpected on Familiar Trails
Glimpse Ahead: Even the most familiar paths can surprise us. Sometimes what blocks our way becomes the very thing that reveals resources we didn’t know we were carrying. This essay looks at how things change when we don’t know what’s coming, and how the things that seem to hold us back can show us how we adjust to new situations.
When the Familiar Becomes Unfamiliar
I’ve walked this trail dozens of times. The same loop, the same landmarks, the same spot where I let the dogs wade, the same comforting sense of rhythm.…
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Getting Untangled: What My Dog Teaches About Grace
Glimpse Ahead: Sometimes the most profound teachers walk on four legs. In this reflection, I explore what my dog Dahlia has taught me about getting unstuck when life’s leash gets wrapped around our legs. Her graceful approach to untangling offers insights about patience, movement, and the soul’s response to being caught.
Dancing Out of the Tangle
I’m hiking a trail with Jaxyn and Dahlia, my two Springerdoodles, tethered together on their dual leash system. Inevitably, as we navigate roots and rocks and the occasional interesting smell that demands investigation, the leash finds creative ways to wrap itself around legs, under bellies, and through the spaces between eager paws.…
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Becoming and Being: The Motion Within the Moment
Glimpse Ahead: Becoming isn’t just a steady march toward something new. Being and becoming move together, not as separate states, but in partnership. Each shapes the other along the path. Becoming reveals itself in presence, in what we notice and in each small choice. Being and becoming mirror the dance between where we are and who is already emerging. Even small shifts carry us closer to the self unfolding within.
Trailhead Invitation
I headed out inviting thoughts about being and becoming. My first goal was simply to appreciate being out in nature.…
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The Empty Hook
It’s often what isn’t there that speaks the loudest.
Moment on the Map
This photo captures a memorable moment that has lingered as a personally meaningful image for many years. The sky is awash in gentle sunset tones, with a cloud opening as if to welcome possibility. Dark trees border the scene like guardians, letting the light spill upward. At the center stands a lone shepherd’s hook, empty, curved, simple, silhouetted against the open sky. Something once hung here and will again. But not now. The hook is between what was and what may be.…
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Affirmations That Respect the Trail: Where You Are Matters As Much As Where You’re Going
Glimpse Ahead: Some affirmations soar too far ahead. Others whisper gently from where you stand. Here, you’ll discover a soulful approach to affirmations that are grounded, truthful, and aligned with the rhythm of real transformation.
Honest Affirmations Support Inner Movement
Some affirmations aim to inspire you, boost your belief, and help you grow into a new self. But sometimes, instead of lifting us up, affirmations can leave us feeling more disconnected. It is like trying to convince yourself you’re standing on the mountaintop while still lacing your boots in the parking lot.…
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Soulfulness: Living with Depth, Meaning, and Inner Radiance
Glimpse ahead: Soulfulness is a way of being. It’s our lived connection to meaning, presence, and the true self. It’s more than a feeling. It’s a path shaped by core principles that guide how we move through life with awareness, integrity, and depth. In this reflection, you’ll explore those guiding principles and how Soulfulness reveals itself through quiet signals of alignment, soul signals like resonance, compassion, and a sense of deep understanding. These principles aren’t fixed ideas but living invitations. They can be nurtured through intentional practices. This is the beginning of a deeper journey, one that unfolds through conscious steps and the choices we carry with care along the way.…