I took my friends out to the Western Slope of Colorado, returning to the area I last left behind in December 2020 after resigning from the job that I’d moved out there for just before the pandemic hit in a globally massive way.

It’s going to take me a while to untangle and peruse through all the feelings this brought up.

After Capitol Reef today and Kanab before that, and the glorious afternoon hike along Calf Creek in Escalante, I’ve been soaking up the awe-inspiring geology for a while now. I’ll be sad to leave it behind, but there’s part of me that’s looking forward to heading home to see how the next phase goes.

I am hitting the road in Stella, my trusty Subaru Outback, and seizing the chance to do one of those things I’ve always dreamed of doing: a cross-country road trip.

I find travel so rewarding in large part because it always leads me to new discoveries about myself and the world. And I’m curious to see what I’ll learn on this trip.

I want my personal adventures and the adventures I design for others to have that electrifying sense of resonance and surprise that can only come when you’re deeply connected. I want to be part of making experiences that push me and my fellow adventurers productively outside our comfort zones, right up to our learning edges. I want experiences that will make us feel tingly or warm or refreshed or zapped or soothed or light, or some other somatic, embodied feeling that roots us right there in that moment, individually and together.

I’m giving myself a sabbatical of sorts from a professional field that is both still dear to me and seems hopelessly mired in harmful behaviors.