Friends in the red desert again

A few of my Utah wilderness friends reunited in Moab, Utah. If you can't tell from the pictures, we had fun. Along with good time with good friends, it was refreshing to be in the red desert again. I've missed it.

Alabama, please come further

Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, AL

Alabama is my home, and I love it. The first thing I bought when moving to Colorado, and the most expensive thing I have ever purchased to decorate my walls, is a map of Alabama. It’s beautiful and I love showing it off.

I have been reading Martin Luther King’s sermons over the past month and recently visited the Civil Right museum in Birmingham, AL. Alabama is a state with a complicated history. It is bewildering to realize just a short time ago our state government, church, and culture endorsed such things as excluding certain portions of the population from restaurants and bathrooms and unleashing dogs and water hoses on non-violent protesters. Alabama has come a long way in 50 years, as such acts are clearly recognized as deplorable today.

In the sermon “The American Dream”, Reverend Martin Luther King preaches about the most well-known phrase in our country’s declaration of independence.

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

King pointed out that our American dream says: "that each of us has certain inalienable rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state. …. They are God-given, gifts from him hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed such profound, eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality."

As I read the words of King and our founding fathers, I can’t help but think about the new immigration law (HB56) in Alabama. While Alabama has come far, my reflections make me beg to my home, "Alabama, please come further!"

Among many things, HB56 criminalizes undocumented immigrants who rent, work, have false papers, as well as anyone who harbors or transports an undocumented immigrant. It also requires police to question people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally, and schools check the status of students. The intention of the law is to make life so uncomfortable for immigrants that they leave.

This law makes criminals out of our neighbors who have caused no problem. With this law, we criminalize the people who pick our produce for a price that no one else will while exposing themselves to harmful pesticides with no access to healthcare. It criminalizes the people who raise the chickens we eat while working in dangerous conditions without a system to protect them should they get injured. It deters women who are victims of domestic violence from seeking help for fear that they may be deported and their children left alone in a country where they have lived for 10 to 15 years. It keeps documented children of undocumented parents from being educated and vaccinated. This law also criminalizes any citizen who helps, feeds, or drives an undocumented immigrant.

While we can debate about how to handle illegal immigration, Alabamians, of all people, should be keen to recognize and ready to refuse the removal of any persons God-given human rights and dignity.

For many reasons this law is economically and politically unsound; most importantly, I believe that it is morally unsound. Had this law been in effect when I was living in Alabama, I should have been arrested…..a lot. Well, maybe not a lot, for it was usually my undocumented immigrant friends who fed me and gave to me. Today, I would be proud to be arrested for such deviant behavior.

As Reverend Robert Lancaster of Elkmont United Methodist Church in Alabama said, "You cannot tell a church that if there's a man hungry out there, a family hungry out there, that they can't feed them just because they don't have a green card," he says. "That's not Christian."

As serious as Alabamians are about Christian values and patriotism, we should be in an uproar. I am thankful for those that are.

Snow Day = Fun Day

I am learning the magic of the words "Snow Day". It has barely been winter here, but we have had a few days in which we were blessed with this white fluffy stuff. Though "snow day", typically means, "no climbing day", I find myself longing for the snow, along with everyone else here.

The Flatirons covered in snow are a real treat for the eyes.

After little coco (my car) failed to make it up the mountain to cross country ski, we settled for a snowy hike in Eldorado Canyon.

My new friend and climbing partner, Amy, on a white hike.

After this most recent snow day Julia, Will and I bought new tubes and were ready to fly the popular sledding hill in Boulder. Our hopes were dashed though when our new tubes wouldn't even get down the hill. As everyone else was laughing in delight with their sleds and fast tubes, we were totally bummed. That is until we joined forces with the other tubers. We flew down the hill with 9 people on 4 tubes!! Such fun!

I invested in some cross country skis and have been enjoying them. However, at any decent incline, I curse them. I had reached the cursing point in this picture.

Southeast climbing

Southeast rock climbing rocks! There may not be many walls soaring hundreds of feet in the air, but in my opinion the Southeast's hard sandstone provides the best rock quality and style of climbing. This Christmas break, I spent one day at Little River Canyon around Fort Payne and two days at Tennessee Wall in Chattanooga. It was a real treat to say the least.

Little River Canyon in the Fall

Derek (climbing), Paul (belaying), and Lauren (photographing) let me tag along on their mid-week climb. These guys are legit pull-hards! In the above picture, I am helping to give an extra 'umph' to Derek's boink.

I met my friend Matt from Chapel Hill in Chattanooga. We were amazed at the diversity, quality and quantity of lovely lines at T-Wall. It is a trad heaven of sorts.

Christmas 2011

This Christmas has been surprisingly pleasant. It mostly involved eating, walks with mom and Luke (the dog), watching movies, and visits with some very cute and rowdy nephews. Last Christmas I was in the field, around a muddy and wet campfire with young adult boys struggling with addiction and depression. I was grateful to have such an atypical Christmas for the first one without my Dad. This year, I knew I wanted to be at home with my family, even though I was expecting it to be pretty cheerless.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t. I live across the country, and I am rarely around people who knew Dad. In this Christmas season, it is soothing to be around others who loved him and miss him too. Dad’s presence was joyful, generous, and silly; you can’t take something like that away without a deficit. Thankfully his spirit was so full of these qualities, and he left some of the joy, generosity, and silliness with us here when he left our current world.

My lovely aunties and cousins

Pause please

This year has been good to me. Looking back on my first blog posts and hopes for 2011, I’d say it has been what I had hoped it would be. I have adventured, spent time in the wilderness, stayed away from media, and my soul feels revived.

I climbed in Yosemite, Moab, Red Rocks, Colorado, Flagstaff, San Diego, Joshua Tree, Zion, North Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama, and all over Utah. I have read a number of great books (namely Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, and The Life of Pi by Yann Martel). I have had lots of time with family and friends. I went home four times this year, usually for two weeks at a time, and had several visits by my family here out West. I ended up with something of a dream job, and I can live anywhere doing it.

Now I am living in a really beautiful place with lots of life. Walking out my door I can be in the mountains or downtown in 10 minutes. I can walk or bike to the Flatirons, and Eldorado Canyon is a 10 minute drive.

A lot has happened this last year. Even still, no matter how fast I seem to go or or how much I do, I so often am overwhelmed by the feeling of time moving along far too quickly. Is it really almost 2012? Am I really 29, going on 30??I find myself feeling behind in life and wondering “where is the damn pause button!!” It’s absolutely frightening.

What's clear to me is the importance of being present in my "now". I don't want to miss out on the time and things that I do have because of longing for what isn't or hoping for a pause button.

My friend and housemate, Julia, on a hike just up our street

It's a great day to be...

Dad was always full of great quotes and quips. When I went home for Thanksgiving last week, I found a t-shirt with one of them on it.

The football team at Citronelle High School, where Dad coached for 19 years, made a t-shirt with his saying: “It’s a great day to be a wildcat.” For dad, it was always a great day to be wherever or whatever he was. His optimism was infectious.

One of my favorites of his quotes was: “Katie, it’s good for ya!” He said this when offering Snickers, peanut M&Ms, and Hershey bars. He said it with even more enthusiasm if I refused the treat. Now, I can’t look at a pack of peanut M&Ms and not hear “Katie, it’s good for ya!” I believe he was correct.