Bear Lake Journeys Blog

“In this waking dream the slope is steep, and I must wear my heavy boots.  But reality is growing soft and melting – mingling with relevance and merging with reverie as the mountains grow within me, lifting me upward.  It seems fanciful, crazy, or capricious, but when I reach the…

“The Road goes ever on and onDown from the door where it began.Now far ahead the Road has gone,And I must follow, if I can,Pursuing it with eager feet,Until it joins some larger wayWhere many paths and errands meet.And whither then? I cannot say” — J.R.R. Tolkein By August, I…

“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.” — Alanis Obomsawin The Bear Necessities 2013 was…

“Honor the sacred.Honor the Earth, our Mother. Honor the Elders.Honor all with whom we share the Earth:Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones,Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people.Walk in balance and beauty.” — Native American Saying 2. The Initiation Peerl was terrified, but tried not to show it.  There was going to be a…

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber Saturday Evening Back at camp, I learned that the Three Amigos had names and lives like I did.  John, Doug, and Aaron preferred to talk about “guy stuff,” and showed little appreciation for the spectacular splendor…

“Between every two pine trees, there is a door leading to a new way of life.”— John Muir Yes, It’s Still SaturdayThe swarthy lakeside forest opened its arms to welcome me back, the way it always did.  For me, walking into a forest is sheltering, the way a toddler seeks…

“Another glorious day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where.  Life seems neither long not short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees or stars.  This is true freedom, a good…

“Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth.  They stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and shields.  If you would know the earth for what it really is, learn it through its sacred places.” — N. Scott Momaday Saturday, Sept 15 – Revisiting I…

“Our real journey in life is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.  Never was it more necessary for us to respond to that action.”   — Thomas Merton Friday, September 14…

“The moment of crisis is always a moment of potential.  The gates of grace open in a way they were not open before.  It is a strange thing: when human beings reach a real crisis, we are given a grace we are not otherwise given.” — Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Morning: approximately…

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” — Kahlil Gibran I shifted my pack, and stepped where I thought there was a rock beneath a bush, but there wasn’t.  I fell suddenly, hands and face first, with my mouth scraping against rough granite.  I lay…

“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money.I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break awayand get out into the mountains to learn the news” — John Muir We speak in awe of mountains as though they are “timeless,”…

The doors to the crematorium opened, and the cardboard coffin rolled inside on the conveyor belt.  Through a thick little tinted window I watched the gas-fed flames gain purchase on the sides, and within seconds the whole box was aflame in an artificial funeral pyre.  My mom had left the…

As we drove the dirty, old Toyota pickup to the crematorium, with my mom’s discarded body in a cardboard box in the back – where we used to bring the garbage cans to the dump – I was swamped by a sneaker wave of sadness.  Fighting back tears, I wondered,…

By the time my sisters arrived at my mom’s house, her empty body was freezing, as if colder than the surrounding air.  She was beginning to stiffen, but we knew what she wanted us to do.  We gathered around her bed, let down the rails, and the four of us…

I remembered my mom, and how strange it had been to be in her house, with her recently vacated body, after she died.  She had left it only about an hour before we arrived, but I had the feeling she had already been gone for days.  The last time I…