We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” I’m not the leader of this expedition. I’m usually a leader these days, whether in the classroom or on the track or, as…
Category: Travel
The Long Run
There’s only one seat left when I get on the track bus. Well, two seats really, but the one in the front technically belongs to a baby, and she should probably stick with her mom, Distance Coach, for now. That leaves one seat, way in the back. It’s been ages since I was a “back…
On Spring, Solitude and Serendipity
“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together It is almost nine and mostly dark by the time we get back down to village. It’s our second night staying in a house on the cliff 450 steps above Vernazza,…
Things that Made Life Better This Year: 2010 Edition
The sun is sparkling through the windows of my childhood home in Seattle. It has been a week of rest and reconnection, so much so that I woke up today, surprised to find that it’s the last day of the year. And of the decade, for that matter. I’m neither old enough nor wise enough…
Capturing the Castle
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living…
A Map, A Headlamp, A Castle, The Fog
I consider bringing the headlamp. It’s in the same basket as the map, which I fished out carefully before leaving on this hiking venture. My large topographical map is indispensable; I bought it a few days after moving to Kandern, and it has been a fixture on every excursion since. I love this map. Emily has an…
The Western Front
“Comrade, I did not want to kill you…. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades,…
Seasons
I’ve never been in Europe in autumn. I’ve spent several summers here, two weeks of winter, and one spring. But all of my autumns, my favorite season of all, have been in Washington. I’ve come back to Austria for the weekend–truly just for Saturday–to attend the going-away party for Julie Johnson, a fellow instructor from…
Loslassen
“Nevertheless I am continually with you; You have taken hold of my right hand.” Psalm 73:23 “Einfach loslassen!” We’re playing on the slackline at Family Week II, and the two girls on the sidelines squeal it with the self-confidence of those who watch. Just let go. A slackline is a tightly stretched piece of webbing,…
The Way Home 