both sides now

Mount Tammany is the southernmost peak of the Kittatinny Mountains. It is 1,526 feet tall, and forms the east side of the Delaware Water Gap. Across the Gap is Mount Minsi, on the Pennsylvania side of the river.

I’ve hiked Mount Tammany a handful of times and have always enjoyed the challenge of the trail and the views from the top.


Last weekend, I crossed the Gap to hike Mount Minsi. Standing there, looking at Mount Tammany, I thought...sometimes you can’t fully appreciate the mountain while you’re standing on top of it...sometimes you need to see it from both sides.

thanksgiving

I don’t really follow politics, but I know enough about what’s going on with the “job crisis.” I know it because I have two master’s degrees and couldn’t find a job for a year and a half. And, even now, the jobs I am working are part-time because benefits cost too much for full time employees.

During the last year I have undergone a sort of transformation, a paradigm shift if you will. It was met with some resistance by my rational side, but in the end it was the best thing I could do for my own well being.

When I was younger, I went to school. It was what I did. After college, I got a job. It was what I did. As I grew older, I began noticing the first question most people ask someone is “What do you do?”

It didn’t take me long to realize that, to an extent, our jobs define us. They consume the majority of our day. And so, for ten years I was a researcher...it was what I did...and then, it was gone.

Being unemployed for a year and a half was a struggle, but in all honesty, the emotional strain far outweighed the financial aspect of not having a job. Every time I met someone new and they asked me what I did for a living, it felt like a kick in the gut.

As time passed, I began to drift away from the mindset that work (what I did for a living) was a necessary component of what defines me. My actions, my thoughts, my beliefs are what define me, 24/7, not just from 9 to 5.

And so, during this time of giving thanks, I would like to offer my most sincere gratitude for the people in my life who have stuck by my side during one of the most difficult times in my life. Thank you for your patience, understanding and faith in me...and most importantly, thank you for not giving up on me.


“Be mindful of what you toss away, be careful of what you push away, and think hard before you walk away.”

HOPE

"Love your secrets bottled up, but love them more when you give them up."

I have been carrying a piece of paper in my wallet for almost a year. I call it “hope.”

The words might not have been true. I can only hope that they were. I can only hope that someday, someone, somewhere will feel that way about me.

Until then, I am fine carrying on as I do, every day, holding on to hope.

tangled

They only travel from my gym bag to my ears, yet somehow this always seems to happen.

The Xlerator

I have always been in awe of the magnificent drying power of the Xlerator. It's definitely a treat to find one in a public restroom. Watching the way it moves around the skin on your hands never ceases to amaze me.

DT on the AT: New York

Anytime there is a mild weekend like this in November it’s a bonus.

There are 88 miles of the Appalachian Trail in New York. The trail crosses the Hudson River, entering Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park, where the first section of the A.T. was completed in 1923. Heading south, the trail then passes through the newly protected Sterling Forest.

The loop I hiked was about four miles, climbing Bear Mountain on the Major Welch Trail and descending via the Appalachian Trail.

I was driving to the gym on Friday and looked out of the passenger side window. I watched a hawk fly parallel to me for nearly 200 yards. My first thought was “Wow, that was really sweet!” and my second was “I sure wish I had a camera.”

Later in the day, I worked a private party at the ropes course. There were several parents, armed with cameras, snapping photographs of their children every opportunity they had. It was almost as if they weren’t present, in the moment. They were consumed by taking pictures, in an attempt to preserve the experience.

I thought about the hawk and how, I too am guilty of doing the same thing these people were doing...but for what reason? Some of my favorite memories are ones that were never captured in a picture. Even though they happened years ago, they’re as vivid as if they were yesterday.

So, I hiked the Appalachian Trail today and made a memory...one that’s just for me.

daylight saving time

Sunset at 4:49 PM is tolerable when it happens this way...

all in a day's work

the walk to work...


the office...


lunch break...



the view from my window...

follow your bliss

Sometimes it's nice to wake up on a weekend with absolutely no plan and see where the day takes you.

I ended up at the shore on Sunday. The ocean was calm and the beach was empty. It was almost as if I wasn't supposed to be there. I walked the shoreline, thinking about how crowded this same spot was just a few short months ago. The sun seekers and the swimmers are gone and this place is much more beautiful in the stillness.

I find myself craving these experiences...the ones that people prefer not to have...the beach when it isn't summer...the trails in the winter time. In our every day lives we are surrounded by a multitude of stimuli. It's refreshing to be in a situation where the only thing you can hear is the sound of the waves crashing on the shore or the sound of your footsteps on the dry, fallen leaves.


"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time." - Joseph Campbell

el océano

"And the ones that can know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole."
- Dar Williams

H2O-tto