I’m a social person enjoying the noise of people around me, though I require access to the countryside for an occasional hike or picnic.
Read Moreexchanging laughs
Let us keep count
Let Us Keep Count
Strange place to be,
sleep settles into spurts.
My sharp staccato,
a Spanish tendency continues.
Time beyond these walls
incomprehensible.
We keep count
reminding each other,
not of better times,
just of impermanence.
Tana, capital city
One Evening in Madagascar
Sweet flute music is playing, Sitraka is in the kitchen with her mother cooking, I am swimming in language books, notes, and very overwhelmed.
Some windows only have screens, the outward doors are unlatched. Yes, it’s cold. These are the Highlands of Madagascar. Rice patties interspersed with canals and a mélange of farm animals, mostly cows and poultry, are included in the patchwork. Homesteads hug the roadways, much like rural France where families live in accordance with their livelihoods.
The flute floats across the valley, lovely to the ear yet the reason for the performance may shock some not accustomed to such proximity to death. My family is not involved with this ancient Malagasy tradition, turning of the bones They don’t entertain these live performances to help pass the long damp winter. My wish will be to fall asleep to that sweet music tonight.
Reboot, Restart, shortest reflection ever
Zambia, May 2022
Anyone else ever feel as if they need to restart life?
I thought it would be easy to do but instead it’s a lesson of forgetting old systems and just letting space be.
Beliefs are squashed
Identity questioned
Certainties lost
Lesson learnt
A life path suddenly drops from sight and the next step may ultimately lead to a long uncomfortable freefall.
South Luangwa Zambia
Everything has Changed
Sossusvlei, Namibia
1975, my ninth year, was one of those critical life-assessment years. I was faced with the reality that my classmates and I would soon be experiencing puberty together. The indignities of adulthood would absolutely bear down on the sweet weightlessness of our childhood, everything would change.
Ms. Kurtz’s science class also had a big impact. She was a woman of the 70’s. Her square-toed wedges and poly blouses with geometric patterns reflected her upbeat and quirky attitude. That year she explained environmental degradation to us. Industrial outputs and individual consumption were changing the planet so quickly that our class would witness ecosystems collapsing, certainties emphasized by colorful forecasting charts. Many of my life decisions have been based on Ms. Kurtz’s 1975 lesson plans.
We see that the environmentalists and scientists of the 1970s were right to be alarmed. Open wild spaces are mortally threatened today, yet those are the areas that are critical to our psyche and our physical well-being. Conservationists work to protect planet Earth and her biodiversity; we make personal and professional choices with the future of the natural world in mind. Conservationists are generally optimistic but truthful too.
Spending the day outdoors, riding my bicycle, these activities allowed my passage through adolescence. As a 21rst century adult, the joy I experience in nature is still my steadying force. I am always thrilled to share my enthusiasm for wild spaces with friends or am happy to go it alone. Taking the opportunity to be outdoors for a day or maybe a fortnight, allowing yourself to be lost in nature, these experiences provide the balance our bodies crave. Try it you’ll like it. *
*Copy of 1970’s Alka Seltzer TV advertisement.
Namib Desert, Nambia
Summer Night
Not a season for whispers
it harkens jigs and dance,
accompanied by nonsensical song.
Friends gather at night,
"welcome all, ladybirds and dragonflies,
come let’s celebrate the sun.”
But look at the
Platters of color
Salads of bounty
Soba and mushrooms
and a kaleidoscope of flavor
Oyakodan perfectly dressed with
small market vegetables.
Graphic short story by Ethan Bontrager
Little Lily
Ethan Bontrager completed this graphic story May 2022. He is a creative writer, bicyclist, mechanic, cook, and my brother. Because of his MS (Multiple Sclerosis), Ethan has difficulty with handwriting and controlling a pen.
I hope you enjoy this graphic biographical account of our mother, Lily Levine.
Life Story in 6 Words
Steeped in beauty ….
Read MoreBroken Contract
Yellowstone National Park, Winter 2022
Winter Wildlife
Winter Palette
Mammoth Hot Springs
No. Wells and Chicago River Bridge
Morning Walk
I had those few hours in-between breakfast and time of departure,
so I took a walk.
Men rushed past me,
women anchor their hair against the elements.
I don’t know the city well,
especially this new version.
I was here to watch, look, and see,
Good Morning Chicago.
Visions are True
On my own
shadows followed me.
Remember the day we
were awestruck together?
Hands clasped, our breath measured.
I never tire of Rothko
for color is life.
Her always Chagall,
to be untethered from it all.
Twilight
Don't Prolong
I know why
so alone
with the dark
shadows stare.
Acceptance
did not come.
Meaning lost
fall away.
To forget,
to remember.
Nothingness
is always there.
I know why
so alone,
cannot speak,
there should be sound.
Featured
Summer in Cape Town
Bicycle Tour in the New Year
Waking up from three days of Covid Haze I faced the first day of 2022. I swung my feet over the side of the bed, staggered to the kitchen to turn on the kettle before finally settling on the couch in front of the fire. I, the one who prefers to cook and bake at home on holidays, had been persuaded to attend a Christmas party. My hesitant sociability was rewarded with a bad case of Covid-19.
The last unmasked event I had attended, before Covid, was a EDM concert downtown in January 2020. We danced and were invited to meet the DJs. It was a carefree urban type of night that acclimated me back to Denver having just returned from a 9-day cycle tour in South Africa.
A South African bicycle tour operator had popped up on my Instagram feed in December 2019. I immediately signed up to join the group and in three week’s time I was on a flight to Cape Town. I took a couple of days in Constantia to sightsee and build my bicycle from the travel case. That Monday morning the tour operator collected me and the rest of the group and we drove out to the Garden Route to start our tour.
Touring Schedule Part 1:
Monday: The five of us cyclists got to know one another on the drive to George. We were a non-competitive group out to enjoy the summer weather. I was amazed that the guys from England had traveled all the way to Cape Town to attend a cricket tournament held the week before and they were equally amazed that I would fly in just to ride my bike. Before dinner we took a quick ride in the evening mist, a test of our wits perhaps? The face paced ride was the perfect warm up for the next day.
Tuesday: George to Oudtshoorn - 70K (approx.) - Outeniqua Mountains
This proved to be one of my favorite cycling days. We rode through indigenous forests of the Witfontein Nature Reserve then into mountain fynbos terrain. It was a cloudy, rainy day perfect weather for strenuous climbs. Montagu Pass was the climb of the day, here we encountered 4 mountain bikers and 2 vehicles., blissfully low-key compared to Colorado traffic.
The world has experienced a seismic shift since my January 2020 bicycle trip. I don’t expect to return to indoor dance concerts or any other indoor social events for awhile, but I do plan to return to bicycle touring this year. 12 weeks has always been my optimal training time. The time commitment is probably the hardest part of the program next to winter conditions. Let us see where I’ll be in April or May.
An afternoon in Cape Town before the bike tour
An afternoon in Cape Town after the bike tour
painted wolf puppies
African Painted Wolves
Our first encounter with painted wolves was during a mobile camping trip in the Okavango region of Botswana, after morning tea we all trundled into the safari truck for a day of exploration.
Read MoreHimba Village in the Kunene Region
Archive Alert
I recently completed a school report regarding the impacts that prolonged drought events are having on the HImba in the Kunene Region. My photographs were taken in 2018 and the drought had continued since then through 2020 with predictions for unpredictable weather patterns to continue in the region at large.
I enjoyed my visit and learning about some of the cultural traditions that the Himba live by. It is humbling how well they have adapted to living in this arid environment for generations.
whattled cranes overhead
Why not Botswana in August?
Okavango Delta region, Botswana
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“She twitches, recognizing my strength and charisma…”