703 Days

Today is my 703rd day of nursing you. Both. I didn’t set out to nurse you at all, or not to. When you were growing in my belly I told myself I’d have no expectations for this—that I’d let our path be our path. Back then I never dreamed our path would take us to your being 1 month shy … Read More

Seeing the Whole Mountain

Close your eyes and think about the mountains of the world that hold a place in your heart and mind. Did you see people? Did you see the people that call those mountains home? Or, were you like me and did you simply see faces of rock, snow and ice, new adventures, and new routes to climb or hike or … Read More

And Then There Were Two

Dear Kaz and Irenna, Today you are ten months old. This week the last of winter’s snow left our garden and the final crocus patch bloomed and closed just in time to escape your attempts to eat its purple petals. I spent our first winter together pulling you behind me in a tandem sled that gave me independence while keeping ... Read More

My Next 40 Years

Dear Kaz and Irenna, Today I turn 40. That’s old, or young, depending on whom you ask. But I don’t care about what anyone else thinks about the relative age of 40. I only care about turning 40 in respect to you two. Today you are three months and one week fresh in this world. And while you can bet … Read More

Harald, Maude, and the Himba: A letter to the twins

Dear Harold and Maude, I know, I’d promised new names. We will get there—we still have five weeks to come up with them. Five weeks until you launch yourselves into the outside world. Five weeks until I hold you in my arms instead of in my belly. Back before I knew I was having you, or even sure I wanted … Read More

Coming soon: 20 tiny toes and 2 big hearts

Dear Harold and Maude, Those aren’t your names—don’t worry. I promise we will have better ones picked out by the time you make your debut in June. You’ve been living and growing in my belly for 18 weeks, I just found out that you’re a boy and a girl, and it seemed the time to write you your first letter. … Read More

Graduating a Class of 28 Disruptive Conservationists…and Yourself

How do you graduate a group of 22 African and six American participants that has been through a 12-day training in leadership, conservation planning, and environmental stewardship? You don’t. They graduate themselves. And it looks like this:[fve]https://vimeo.com/138187480[/fve] In July, The Lost Mountain (now called LEGADO) held our 2015 Next Gen Symposium in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. The Symposium sought ... Read More

Open-Sourcing the Brain Power of Future Leaders in Conservation

In seven days I will be back in Mozambique. Me, my five-person team from Additive Adventure, and 35 emerging leaders in the field of disruptive conservation. Disruptive? You bet. It’s disruptive because it’s a new model for building community-driven conservation in some of the world’s most remote and biologically diverse places in the world. Mount Namuli, the site of my … Read More

Stepping up to a Name: An Emerging Take on Community Engagement

Ethiopia was a lark. In 2006 I was over-caffeinated and restless in Colorado and volunteered myself to go to the Horn of Africa with a group of people I just met. I went. I stayed. I wrote two books. I keep returning. Mozambique was a calculated process. I saw a photo. I looked behind it, beside it, dug deep into ... Read More