Editor's Column
Nature and Respite
by Kit Brown-Hoekstra
After a bunch of project deadlines and a push to develop an entire help system for a new, complex application in less than a month, I was in serious need of a break from my computer and work.
On 30 May, I packed my car and headed north to the Vee Bar ranch in Wyoming, where I spent 5 glorious (though often chilly and rainy) days riding horses and attending a writing retreat. The internet access was slow and the cell phone service was non-existent, but after about 5 minutes of withdrawal, I missed neither one.
The retreat was exactly what the doctor ordered. I reveled in the physicality of working with the horses, being mindful and fully present. When I arrived, I felt completely drained, and my brain was making that clinking sound that you get when you are trying to scrape the last bit of peanut butter out of the jar.
I did not do much writing during the retreat, but enjoyed the discussions about nature writing and creative non-fiction, and absorbed the landscape into my pores as I breathed the clean air, listened to the birds, and watched the pronghorn run.
By the end, I was much refreshed and ready to take on the next set of challenges, and am looking forward to seeing everyone in Hawaii!
Kit with Ed the horse.
Horses running in from the pasture.
Centennial Valley, WY, US. View from Medicine Bow National Forest. The picture doesn't do it justice. (red, dead-looking pine trees are due to pine beetles, which have decimating western US forests)
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