“One constant in my life, is the wood stove. It helps me find a path through the winter. I don’t recommend it for everyone, but in my case, it’s an anchor to reality. And immediate comfort. I’ve always loved trees, climbed them, pruned them, admired them, and burned them. It’s not an over-complicated equation. People are much harder to organize, in any useful way. They seem to consistently escape their designated roles, back stab, & menace. How far from my idyllic notion, of people as spirit. The fact remains, that land dwellers must deal with other land dwellers. And I have come to believe, that our human landscape is littered with damaged individuals, and even worse. However. And I love that word. Because it helps me climb back out of my pit of despair, and get back on the horse. There is no reason to submit to the tyranny, in any form. Especially those of us living on verdant tracts of pristine land, burbling with mountain water, and trod upon by very few. What do we think we’re doing here? Just conducting “business as usual”? I don’t think so. Get a grip. We are here as the first line of the defense, against insanity, and the digitization of biological humans. We, who still fill our sheds, rake hay, push seeds into the dirt, run plow blades through virgin soil or snow, and who revel, in the exhaustion of living in a body that works. And I stand with those who can no longer stand, some of my cohorts who have becomes less mobile, and may be on the ropes, for whatever reason. In the dimming of this afternoon, I have felt compelled, to traverse a chosen terrain, thinking about, and caring about, the ones in my sphere who may feel irrelevant. As well as those who feel pushed into things where they are not thriving. I put on my skis, next to the truck, and it’s cold. 4 degrees. With fewer place to go, wild or left fallow, what was pasture maybe; with fewer entry points not been claimed by sport adventurists: I’m gambling. But I can always turn around. The brutal uphill, breaking trail, a foot of undisturbed snow, I’m not excited about, but I’ll do. Alone, I can pace myself, with no judgment. I guess that’s why I can go farther, and faster, unperturbed by conversation, or comparison. The woods is absolutely, still. The trees are dormant, and statuesque. I really do have a lot, on my mind. The deeper I plunge, the harder the climb, the less I feel capable: the greater my joy. I don’t have to prove anything, I just have to get home at the end of the day, alive. I’m not gonna go further, to the lookout. Breaking trail, dealing with a foot of snow, has taxed me enough. I do one off piste maneuver, to check a side trail. That’s it. I’m really okay with what I’ve got. The snow is so beautiful, and elemental: a point of clarity. It’s what I came for. I want us all to be kind.”
