by kimqi | Sep 21, 2021 | YinYang, Seasons
A couple of pesky miles, or maybe four, I wasn’t sure. Regardless, I had attempted this tiny stretch of the NCT repeatedly without success. I couldn’t find the trailhead, car problems sent me home, endless rain relocated me to the cabin, a creepy truck parked on the...
by kimqi | Jun 19, 2021 | Manistee, Michigan, YinYang, Seasons
Happy Solstice Eve! Tomorrow is the longest day of the year. My favorite way to celebrate the Summer Solstice–besides a music festival–is to watch both the sunrise (5:20 am) and the sunset (8:32 pm). There will be over 15 hours of daylight! Watching the...
by kimqi | May 24, 2021 | YinYang, Seasons
It’s been a few weeks since I spent time in the woods. The cool darkness is welcoming. It contrasts sharply with the heat of the paved parking lot, where three young men in purple robes moved in unison. Their long strides carried them toward the woods, a backdrop for...
by kimqi | Nov 15, 2020 | Winter Hiking, YinYang, Seasons
Stepping onto the trail with a shiver, I am grateful for my windbreaker and zip-up tight. A quick survey of the woods indicates that everything is brown and dead. I knew it would be. It’s mid-November in Illinois. Regardless, walking in the woods grounds me, even if...
by kimqi | Oct 31, 2020 | YinYang, Seasons
Fifteen years ago today, Steven Hill and I bought a house locally known as the Murder Mansion. Murder Mansion because it is a big house and, you know… MURDER. In the mid-1950s, a man called Tex Perkins killed his estranged wife and then himself in the front yard. In...
by kimqi | May 24, 2020 | YinYang, Seasons
Twenty-five years ago, I lived in a small town in northern Japan. I used to stroll through the neighborhood, learning what I could about the place I called home for three years. One sweltering summer afternoon, I walked by a preschool, and all the kids were running...
