A Bicycle Crash
byIn my memory of the house, which is from when I was much smaller, the retaining wall was always around three feet high. But…
In my memory of the house, which is from when I was much smaller, the retaining wall was always around three feet high. But…
I looked at the menu at a booth in Morg’s, a diner in Waterloo, Iowa, on a cold morning this past January, sure of…
Note: I first wrote and published this post on December 29, 2011, calling it “Make 2012 The Year Of Maximum Enthusiasm.” Every year around…
The South Rim of the Grand Canyon can be a magical place: You stand with a 180-degree view of a thing so big and…
Mark and I sat in the front window of a Denver coffee shop, talking about aging. Mark was 44, I was 37. Thirty-seven and…
You may have heard or read a lot about the morning rituals of high-functioning people—CEOs, visionary businesswomen and men, political leaders, gurus, life coaches,…
You know what this ritual feels like: You loosen every buckle on your ski boots, pull your sock up, and mentally armor yourself for…
I trudge forward, the muddy road tugging at my running shoes, splattering my ankles and shins, as I finish the uphill part of my…
One afternoon last August, a delivery truck rolled up outside my house in Denver. Two men got out, dollied a large box through the…
Here’s a crazy story: I spent four and a half hours outdoors alone the other day and didn’t listen to music, or a podcast,…
Note: I first wrote and published this post on December 29, 2011, calling it “Make 2012 The Year Of Maximum Enthusiasm.” Every year around…
If you’re anything like most of us, another year ending means a lot of things: anxiety, hectic planning and travel, trying to meet everyone’s…
I didn’t know why it happened. I was doing OK until the guy with the dog came through, and then, all of a sudden,…
I tried. For a while, it seemed like everyone was talking about how meditation changed their lives—friends, acquaintances, podcast interviewees and interviewers, authors, even…
Here’s one thing we always say about weddings: “It’s the biggest day of your life.” Here’s one thing we almost never say about weddings:…
Last Wednesday, around the ninth switchback in the M Trail at the University of Montana, my legs and lungs screamed at me to stop,…
Probably every other time my friend Lee and I came to the end of an approach hike at the base of a climb, dropped…
Here’s a thing you may have experienced: You’re about to head out on a trip in the outdoors, for three days or longer. You’re…
A couple hundred feet from the top of Avalanche Gulch on Mount Shasta last Monday morning, my friend Abi and I had a check-in….
Just east of Green River, Utah, on Interstate 70, I looked over from the passenger seat to see the car’s gas gauge hovering around…
Ten years ago last weekend, my old friend Jarrett didn’t have cancer anymore, so I thought it would be a good idea to take…
A couple years ago, I was talking to my dad on the phone and asked about his plans for the next weekend. He said…
A lot of things felt like they were on the verge of breaking down in the six months of training for my first 100-mile…
One Sunday last August, maybe halfway through a 22-mile trail run in 85 degrees and full sun, the day after we’d run 24 trail…
Last Saturday night, I was running one of my favorite trails in the dark. I had gotten a late start, realized I failed to…
A few weeks ago, someone put a sticker saying “Does this Sprinter van make my trust fund look big?” on my friend Thomas’s van…
Note: I first wrote and published this post on December 29, 2011, calling it “Make 2012 The Year Of Maximum Enthusiasm.” Every year around…