"Inhabiting the San Juan River canyon for a few days feels like an actual merging of place and friendship with a certain deep affinity circulating between the humans and the landscape. It’s an immersion into something that’s equally comforting, awe-inspiring, and joyful," Rosie Carter writes in this personal essay about friendship with place and humans alike.
Read MoreI recently learned of a new word - solastalgia. Environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht combined "solace" and "nostalgia" to describe “a type of homesickness or melancholia that you feel when you’re at home and your home environment is changing around you in ways that you feel are profoundly negative.”
Read MoreWhat happens in your head when a pandemic hits and your world shrinks to the size of your living room and every week brings more news that's scary and heartbreaking all at once and you miss little things you didn't know were so important like running into friends on the street and great big bear hugs? What changes to your brain take place and what hidden part of your mind quietly tries to deal with them so your day-to-day self can go on functioning in a semi-normal kind of way?
Read MoreSometimes it takes a while to come around to yourself. There are a lot of distractions in life, conflicting viewpoints and layers of inaccurate impressions. Sometimes you think this is who you are but after trying it out you find that it's not quite the right fit. Or you change and it takes a while for all of your parts to catch up to the new reality. All of these things and even more in the mix can make it challenging to answer the seemingly simple question: Who am I?
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