From Whence I Came

As I drove through Eastern Washington into North Idaho on Friday, I was overwhelmed with memory.  Not specific memories from my youth, but a visceral memory.

The trees of the Inland Northwest are different than in the West.  The topography flows at a different rate, with different shades of green and gold and brown than exist around the Puget Sound.  These are the colors I grew up in, the textures that I remember with the soles of my feet.  Basalt rock covered in dry patches of lichens and weedy stalks of course grasses–grays and blacks and browns instead of bright green.

The Puget Sound is a land of Water, surrounded by water, built by water frozen or flowing.  Floods occur each year in an endless cycle of wetness falling, flowing and filling our basins; spreading itself over us and through us, our land our bodies, our nature.  This place is bright with green in a way few places are green….saturated and sprawling green, everywhere.   Read the rest of this entry »