I AM ALIVE!

I don't have any photos to share just yet, but I had some amazing Vit N experiences I wrote about yesterday that I wanted to share!


"This afternoon I was just leaving the park and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Running out of the trees -- about 100 m from my house -- and towards the highway was a beautiful big grizzly bear! It was Grizzly 116, a just-older-than-teenage male grizz that's been hanging around the area. I think he's the guy that pooped in between me and my neighbour's house. He was a nice rich brown colour with blond highlights, and a massive hump of muscle at his shoulders! Totally amazing. The wind was blowing through his fur and he just looked so wild. I felt so blessed!

The wind here today has been absolutely nutbar. So I decided to go for an evening walk.  With my bear spray of course. The wind was whipping from all directions.  Big tall pine trees were leaning away from it and the trembling aspens were bent over with the power of the wind. Not 50 meters from the house I saw the first downed tree...ripped up from its roots! You know the saying "If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?". Well a little later, I heard a tree crack! And then heard the sound of it crashing into the trees around it.  And then there was the grass...probably my favourite part of the evening. Swirling, dancing, flattening, flipping, twisting...if it weren't for the chill I could have watched it for hours. I felt so vibrant, alive and supercharged!!! Wahoo!!!"

*Apparently 7 large trees came down in the campground last night...if the wind got any stronger they were thinking of evacuating sections of the campground!

More Vitamin N(ature)

Here's a recent schwack of photos that I took whilst on a walk in my favourite meadow.  On my return walk, I decided to do some coyote walking.  I was introduced to this for the first time this spring at our seasonal training workshop and I have fully embraced the concept!  For those of you who've never tried it, "coyote walking" means taking off your shoes and socks, lowering your center of gravity a bit by bending your knees slightly, holding your arms slightly out from your body and keeping your gaze on the horizon; then you start walking in the direction of your gaze by feeling the ground with your feet and moving forward slowly and deliberately.  It is  wonderful.  You end up feeling so connected to the earth and you're moving slowly enough that you're able to appreciate the feel of the breeze and the sun on your face, the scent of the damp earth beneath your feet, each sensation under your toes...try it sometime.  You'd be amazed!

Enjoy the dose of vitamins!

Daily dose of Vitamin N

I have been working on another nature-related project of late as well.  A friend of mine had been lamenting the "lack" of nature and wild things in his life, especially during a time of hectic schedules, rehearsals and gigs.  So I took it upon myself to be his personal conduit with good 'ole Nature - sending him daily photos of something nature-related while he was so busy.  Well what was just supposed to last a week or so has been going on for about 4 weeks now and has had amazing results.  My friend really looks forward to his daily vitamins, and I have found that I am so excited about sharing the natural world around me...I am looking at my world in a new way.  I'm finding the beauty in little details, in the little amazements I find every day.  My buddy has also starting finding some nature moments in his own life and has begun sharing them with me too.

I'm reading Richard Louv's latest book, "The Nature Principle", and it talks about how sometimes technology can be a conduit to getting outside and exploring for yourself.  Well in that spirit, I'm using the interweb to share some of my Vitamin N moments with the rest of you.  Get out and be amazed by the little wonders around you...you don't need to be on an African Safari or in a Provincial Park to be awed by Nature!

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, to look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.  Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed."

~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Latest updates

So...I've been back home for about a month now, and back into the swing of things with work and trying to get out and play as much as possible! It has been great getting back to my home and my friends and believe it or not, work has been good too. I still have many moments where I long to be back on a ship or camping beside penguin burrows though....I suppose I will just have to keep working on my plan to get back down south.

My latest crazy news is that I am now the owner of a feline friend. Those of you who know me well will understand that this is quite surprising as I always vowed never to have a cat. Yet I was contemplating getting a pet and realized my life was not quite ready for a dog. I went to the Bow Valley SPCA in Canmore and found the coolest cat there...an 18-month-old orange tabby. He has chosen the name Atticus; I considered Sanchez, but he's a bit too contemplative to be a Sanchez, and not enough trouble to be name Jesus Christ (sorry Mike). He and I are currently chilling out, watching the Planet Earth series and so far we're getting along well! My only request to all of you is to prevent me from becoming "the crazy cat lady of Bow Valley"...I'm only allowed one cat.

So that's the latest news from this wandering Alberta girl....although with the addition of Atticus, I won't be wandering too far for a while.

Going home....I always breathe deeply when I see those peaks. My backyard!