Find Your People

(Texas sky through the trees) I hope that you are the sort of person who paves their own way. I hope you are the sort of person who pioneers new ideas. I hope you are the sort of person who is not afraid to make your own map and go your own way. But whether…

Communicating

(Scenes from hiking in Tennessee)   I have been told that I communicate like a man. I am type-A and very direct. My thinking is ordered, linear, and logical. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. I don’t experience the world emotions first, but logically and analytically; after I have thoroughly thought…

Tennessee

(From my first hiking trip of 2015 – here in Tennessee) I have got to say that I have truly come to value community a lot more in the last year of my life. I am an introvert. And when I say ‘introvert’, I don’t mean I’m shy; I just feel completely drained after being…

Pieces

(South Congress in Austin, Texas) S and I left Texas on Saturday morning and headed back to Tennessee. Though it felt like forever since we had been home, I felt sad as we drove through the Texas towns I am so familiar with. Looking out the window, I realized I have felt this same sadness…

Leaving People Better

This weekend made three weekends in a row that S and I went on a spontaneous road trip. Last weekend we said goodbye to S’s sick uncle. Yesterday, we buried him.    (Tobacco farm in Tennessee, with tobacco hanging in racks on the right) Funerals are a natural cause for reflection. As I sat with…