Going Alone

A great threat to our well-being is the fact that we begin to fade long before we can sense ourselves diminishing. The process begins very young, about age twenty or so, when we begin to settle and - more dangerously - begin to put things aside. When we tell ourselves we'll take up later what we sense we should really begin today. For many of us this is the beginning of an end we may live to regret, and the guarantee of a much later irrelevance we may have the misfortune to o

I enjoyed an interesting talk with a friend today where we touched briefly on the differing ways in which people pace the moments of their days and the days of their lives. Of course, there are many factors at play in how we live, though I mentioned to my friend that one of the things that makes me rise early, work and play hard, and then go to sleep early and deeply is the sense that my moments are passing and there will be no more moments to follow. I get twenty-four hours

I drove past an estate sale today. The very concept brought me back to Japan, and the life I'd formerly lived selling whatever goods remained after old people died. I was an "antique" dealer then. In fact, I was a scavenger. I was a grabber and purveyor of the leftovers of old people's lives. I made my living offering for resale, the nonsense filler and fluff of lives glossed over with the veneer of make-believe meaning and significance of things. I was a middle-man of materi

Mostly, we think of retirement as something to do at the end of a career. For some, this may turn out to be the end of life... For though we may live on another twenty years or more after we stop working, we may find that we haven't enough life left in us to make good use of this ample time and opportunity. And I'm not just talking about health...as age brings upon us other forms of infirmity, some of which are quite subtle and stealthy, being more absence than presence. This

This document is the official transcript of the Cold Gate hike. This was a very scary adventure. Not so much during the hike itself, but for the days and weeks after. And this fear increases with each passing day. I wrote about this very real danger in my book Going Alone. It's the consequence of going so far alone into wildness that we might not find our way back...even if we make it back. #GoingAlone November 14th, 2018 Here’s tomorrow’s plan: 8:00 PM arrival at Siberia, di

DAY ONE ALONE The Return to Siberia countdown timer says I’ll be there tomorrow. Actually, I’ll be there tonight. Let’s go! Last week's Siberia solitude began with this ride from Ludlow to Siberia ghost town. I'd taken a few hours off work in order to leave early (noon) and arrive before sundown, which made for pleasant and interesting travel along a stretch of highway I normally only ride in the dark this time of the year. The many big white 4x4 trucks seen on Route 66 are f

When I pulled in to Siberia I was already unsure. Unsure and uncertain of why the mystery and seclusion of this place had been seemingly compromised. What secrets had been let out? Who had ventured here between this visit and my last time out, three months prior? Someone must have let the empty escape; or had driven it away; or had erased it with attention; or had reminded the nothing that it was not. Whatever the cause, the empty appeared gone - as silly as that might sound.

I encountered this quote today of Nathaniel Hawthorne, relating his impression of the humor and intellect of aged men. I do not believe Mr. Hawthorne sought to disparage this exceedingly rare class of mortal, as much as to highlight the consequence of some early risk in life which - if unmitigated - may result in a more hollow and unsettling dotage than mere years might otherwise demand. Hawthorne equates this quality - to a greater or lesser degree - to the aspect of good hu

I ran across the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote today while listening to an audio recording of his classic, Self Reliance. I've included a video of an excellent audio reading of the book directly below the quote. My impression is that this quote captured Emerson's own experience and impression of Going Alone. I know that he spent much time alone in the wild near his home in Concord, Massachusetts and I suspect he had his own share of encounters with the absence I call Th

I've begun using a new term to describe my activities in the #wild which are centered more on making good use of being alone rather than the pursuit of #adventure. In the past, I've gone to wild places firstly for the experience - the thrill actually - of being active and alone while exploring places I'd never been. The solitude was a side benefit, and not really the primary focus of the activity. Maybe this had something to do with my age, as youth can often be more concerne