I camped by myself for the first time when I was 23. It was in Phoenicia, NY, nestled in the Catskill Mountains, the closest one can get to New York City and still feel connected to threads of wildness. My plan was this: leave work early, drive three hours, camp, summit three mountains, and then …
The Lorax: 2018 Edition
On the side of the world where buffaloes once roamed and black and sticky is the sad ocean foam and nothing ever grows from the infertile loam…is the Street of the Lifted Lorax. What was the Lorax? And why was it there? And why was it lifted and taken somewhere from the side of the …
Self-Portrait at Twenty-Five
You are 25. A quarter of a century. You feel 25. You're still young but somehow, without noticing, you've slipped into adulthood. You like being 25. You sport a $16.95 haircut, and thrift-store sweaters, and purple Vans you bought in California back in high school. You still own your Death Cab for Cutie hoodie …
Three Moments
One I have a group of eight students. It is their first week of school. We're going to do some get-to-know-you games, I say. To start, let's go around the circle and say our name and favorite holiday. You can go first. I gesture to my left. The boy shakes his head as he looks up at me. …
Paper Worries
“I sometimes think that the size of our happiness is inversely proportional to the size of our house.” --Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts I have many hobbies and one of them is worrying. I worry about getting my heart broken, being stuck in an unfulfilling life, and money, often money. My money worries come suddenly and with …
But Wasn’t That Love?
“He said, ‘I love you.’ She shook her head. ‘You can see me, that’s all.’ But wasn’t that love? Seeing what no one else could?” –Bone Gap, Laura Ruby “I’m so scared of dying without ever being really seen. Can you …
Goodbye, See You Tomorrow
“Here sitting on the world, she thought, for she could not shake herself free from the sense that everything this morning was happening for the first time, perhaps for the last time, as a traveler, even though he is half asleep, knows, looking out of the train window, that he must look now, for he …
What Blossoms From Anger
When I was eleven, I wrote a strongly worded email to General Mills arguing that gymnast Paul Hamm should be on a Wheaties box. I didn’t regularly eat Wheaties and I didn’t do gymnastics, but I thought that the red-headed gymnast was adorable and talented and totally deserved to be smiling up at frazzled grocery …
A Year
One year ago, I was sitting at a desk. It was a nice desk. The chair was padded and it swiveled; I had an entire drawer dedicated to colored paper, glue sticks, and craft foam; a painted alligator made of egg cartons and cardboard boxes watched me work. It was a lovely desk. Fifty-two weeks …
Wild Child(ren)
"What's this tree's name? C'mon, we just went over it." I point to a slender tree with gray bark peeling off like wallpaper. The kids look at it uncertainly. "I know it!" A girl exclaims, tugging on her braid. Her eyes widen in revelation. "A shaggy hickey!" …
People in Parks 