Everyday rhythms of life. Now that I’m back to working a normal job life has started to take on a more routine ebb and flow. I can feel myself settling into that easy pace of summer. As the days heat up, runs get moved to early hours. Bike commuting involves as few clothes as necessary. The green lushness in the garden explodes daily. Daydreams of lake floats and campfires capture my mind. I’m loving it!
Happy Memorial Day! I hope your weekend has been filled with wonderful adventures, family and friends and a grateful heart. Thanks to all those service members and their families who have sacrificed so much that we can enjoy such freedoms!
For the past ten summers, these pictures have been my life. In the words of Dr. Suess, “Oh the places you’ll go.” And have I ever gone, to California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, Maine, Texas and back again a time or two or more. The places I’ve seen, many without names and a few with; wild rivers and burbling streams, rugged mountains and never-ending plains, untouched wilderness and bustling cities. And I’m so incredibly lucky to have gotten to have seen and been touched by all these amazing places.
These adventures have been made even richer by the people I’ve met and called my fire family, for the fire community truly is a family. Heart-dropping helicopter flights into the wilderness, foraging for fresh huckleberries to add to breakfasts, carrying an injured crew person out to help, suffering up seemingly never-ending mountain hikes. Each experience has formed a bond with friends that I will forever carry in my heart.
This summer my adventures are going to look a lot different. Lately I’ve been trying to imagine what my pictures will look like at the end of this season. My work is no longer my adventure, which means it’s up to me to figure out how this story goes. Am I nervous about this? Hell yeah! After ten years of being on the road for a total of almost 3 months a year I’m a lot nervous. I suck at staying home and I’m fully aware of that. Keep me here too long and I get cranky. Life seems easier when lived out of a pack. Food, water, shelter and clothing, take care of those and the girl is happy. Add in a few friends and there is little else I want for. Don’t think that I’m not grateful for our cute little cabin to call home, work to put food on the table, and all the other luxuries that surround me. I’m just wondering and worried that my adventure life is over. After years of star-filled, sleep bag nights and rarely a couple months without out some crazy epic I’m feeling a little too settled. So if I go and do something crazy soon, you’ll know why! For now I’m just trying to appreciate the tiny daily adventures and hoping that I don’t get too stir crazy.
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Do you ever feel this way? How do you deal with it?