Writing, Running, and Shutter-bugging

For close to a year I was very diligent at exercising my writing muscle. Combined with my other favorite form of exercise, running, it gave me a place for introspection, contemplation, and ultimately peace. In April I moved to the Teton mountains on the Idaho/Wyoming border. What a magical place this truly is. There is a very special energy about this place.

 The double rainbow is a regular occurance at this end of the valley

 Before I moved here I spent much of my spare time running. None of that really changed when I got here. All the sudden I had this amazing playground right out my back door to go explore, one of the most beautiful places on this planet. I spent all my spare time exploring the mountains I now called home. I thought I was introspective and had a lot to say about this amazing world we live in by my running in Texas! The places I have been able to run over the past year.....words cannot do it justice.  Pictures...I have taken almost 7,000 pictures since I got here. Even some of my most amazing shots still do not fully convey the natural beauty I have seen.

 Every evening the sunset delivers big.  This is the view out my back door.

 I have gotten into some very interesting adventures over these past months. Every day here is an adventure of some sort. Each one of them probably would have prompted a 5,000+ word blog post from me pre-Tetons. It seems like I had more time to contemplate thought provoking experiences when I was living in Texas. Maybe it is because each day here offers such a rich experience that I have become a little numb to the wonderment of all it offers? I do not think so. I think it probably has more to do with a lack of time. 

I took almost 400 pictures on this day during one of many epic traverses of the Teton Range this summer.

Each day is so full of rich experiences in this amazing setting. Kind of ironic. I love running. I love writing. I love taking pictures. I live in the perfect place to combine all three in a way that moves me in a direction that I want my life to go. To become the writing runner who takes some pretty darn good pictures of the amazing places he is so lucky to get to explore. Yet, I have failed thus far at synergizing these three elements of my life. Make your work you play and your play your work. This is something I have been deliberately aspiring to as I seek to construct my ideal life. It is time for me to take some more deliberate efforts to move myself towards this reality. Daily, definitive steps and actions. I did not get this far on accident and I will not reach the next mileposts in my journey by drifting in the current either.

The energy in this mountain range is very powerful.  I am very fortunate to be able to explore all it has to offer.

 I sat down tonight with a firm commitment to begin exercising my writing muscle again. At the top of the page I really had no idea what I might have to say tonight. Just start writing and let it flow. Pure, honest thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. Sitting down and pushing these thoughts onto this page have strengthened my resolve to follow through on the fusion of my running adventures/experiences with my writing and the pictures of the amazing places in this world this will take me.

And so I go out into the wild...