Back, visitor, settling, gratitude, writing

Last updated on: October 11, 2008 at 8:04 pm by Justin Whitaker

Back, visitor, settling, gratitude, writing 2008-10-11T20:04:00-06:00 Justin Whitaker

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I’m back from Glacier now (as of 6 days ago). The trip was amazing (many thanks to the organizers and Tim Cooper, photographer extraordinaire. Eleven of us camped, hiked, drove, and shared two and a half days photographing just one tiny part of this great National Park. Wonderful people, all of them, and excellent photographers (even those who were just beginners). I will post a link to our flickr group once images come streaming in.

The only downside of it all was that my camera, with over 300 images, disappeared on the last day. It may turn up still, or it may be gone for good. Either way it is a good lesson in impermanence, not to mention keeping a better eye on one’s valuables! My parents often told me as a child that I would have lost my head long ago if it weren’t screwed on. Sadly, I’ve carried my ‘head in the clouds’ mentality from childhood into my late 20s, still leaving this or that behind in most of my travels and outings.

Just after returning Sunday, a friend and colleague from England, Dave W., arrived for a 5 day visit in Missoula. We scheduled three talks for him at the U, plus a marathon brain-storming session toward future collaboration – more cross-Atlantic travels for me I hope.

On a run Monday we managed to pass a young black-bear, just five or six feet off the trail. This was my first bear-spotting in all these years in MT, and no doubt made for a good story for Dave to bring back to England.

I will get to give a talk/seminar on my research when I’m next in the UK (January I would guess) at his University, Gloucestershire and we have plans in the making, with the Center for Ethics here, to launch a multi-year, international (including a U. in Africa) global sustainability initiative. Wish us luck in that.

Settling back into ‘normal’ life and routines, I have been spending a good deal of time with a very nice young woman with great appreciation for wine, cooking, and hiking (smiles). Next weekend we’ll return to Glacier together for some camping, hiking, and certainly photography – perhaps with new cameras in hand.

Through it all there is much to be greatful for:

The photography trip as mentioned above; Sarah, our coordinator, and Tim, our photo-teacher, most of all.
More visitors from abroad. Seeing my home town/state/country through foreign eyes always brings new lessons. It is like how animals get better depth perception by having eyes set further apart on their heads. When we see our world through our own eyes it can become a narrow view, but learning to see also through the eyes of someone from far away can fill our flat world with richness never before imagined.
Family. As the summer winds down (or abruptly ends as it did here this week) it feels natural to turn the mind toward Thanksgiving and Christmas and spending time with family again. My sister is now an official hollywood hot-shot, in charge of her own -albeit slightly odd- TV network, BlackBelt TV. But the rest of the family (brother and parents) are still in Helena where we all grew up. As we’ve matured our relationships have morphed from the familiar familial bonds to those of trusted, life-long friends, and for that -and them- I am deeply grateful.

And now I should be off to some writing of some sort, presumably on my ph.d… 🙂 Smiles to the world. May all be joyful and find peace and comfort. May we all awaken fully to the truths of reality and enter the flow of blissful nirvana.

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