“Time passes,” she said. “Things change. You think, Oh, this is a tragedy. And then time passes, and it’s not. It’ s over. At my age, the edges of everything seem…softer, I suppose? Oh goodness, I sound like an old fart.” - from More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen
June 2026
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Books read:
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (translated by Humphrey Davies)
More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen
Trails walked:
Gavilan Ridge out towards Gold Hill near Taos, NM (June 8th)
Beaver Mountain Loop from Deer Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park (June 11th)
Pawnee Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Ward (June 18th)
Battle Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park (June 24th)
Song(s) of the month: RosalÃa’s album Lux
June Summary:
A lot happened this month. Our dog died. He was 14 years old and had reached the point where he couldn’t walk anymore. We both agreed it was time and had him put down peacefully here at our house by a very caring Vet. Buddy wasn’t the most lovable dog in the world, but he was part of our family for the best 8 years of his 14 year life. I find myself heading to the utility room every morning to feed him before realizing that he’s no longer here. Such a strange feeling. Also, my wife and I celebrated 45 years of marriage by eating at our favorite place in Boulder (Il Pastaio) which takes you into the heart of Italy with its crowded tables in a tiny space with wonderful chef owners who treat you with hurried respect as they shuffle patrons among the crowded tables. The restaurant is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year (kids). I normally look forward to their incredible ravioli, but cioppino was on special and I can’t pass that up. As I reflect on 45 years of marriage, I think back on Anna Quindlen’s book, One True Thing. The mother was also doing some reflecting and had this perfect description of a long marriage: “You say to yourself when you’re young, oh, I wouldn’t tolerate this or that or the other thing, you say love is the most important thing in the world and there’s only one kind of love and it makes you feel different than you feel the rest of the time, like you’re all lit up. But time goes by and you’ve slept together a thousand nights and smelled like spit-up when babies are sick and seen your body droop and get soft. And some nights you say to yourself, it’s not enough, I won’t put up with another minute. And then the next morning you wake up and the kitchen smells like coffee and the children have their hair all brushed and the birds are eating out of the feeder and you look at your husband and he’s not the person you used to think he was but he’s your life.” Anna Quindlen is a gem, and I read another great work of hers this month.
If you are following the saga of my knee then you know that I had a steroid injection for my torn meniscus in mid-May. It seemed good for a couple of hikes but June would be the true test. After four great hikes this month I’m happy to report that the knee is holding up. Steroids are magic. There are many things happening in the country as we approach our 250th anniversary, but honestly, not much of it is good these days so I’m gonna avoid talking about that for now. Maybe I’ll talk about it next month. North America (Canada, US, and Mexico) is hosting soccer’s (futbol’s) World Cup. I’m not a soccer fan so I haven’t kept up much, but I have been watching some of the clips that show how passionate the fans are. The Scotland fans taking over Boston and drinking the bars out of stock while singing drunken songs has been entertaining, along with the Norwegian fans doing their Viking rowing chants as they climb escalators in the local mall. And Mexico is going wild for their team. Watching fans in Lebanon cheer for Brazil was great…what?! Yeah, Brazil has the largest population of Lebanese diaspora outside of Lebanon…who knew? And Cape Verde became the smallest country to make it to the elimination rounds. So, lots of good stories even if I’m not watching the games (matches). I had heard that the US was through, which bummed me out until I realized that was a good thing. Soccer terms are a whole new language. Players don't wear uniforms, they wear kits. Oh, and nobody ever really knows how much time is left in a half or a game. Just keep playing, the refs will let you know.
This month I read a book on hope that didn’t give me much of it, an historical novel about Palestine that was heartbreaking and informative, and another brilliant tearjerker from Anna Quindlen about family and friends. My rambling took me on three very steep hikes; one outside of Taos, one in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and one in Rocky Mountain National Park. And also to a pretty hike in RMNP that was surprisingly uncrowded due to some road construction I decided to hike around. Enjoy!
Things My Grandkids Say: My 2.5-year-old granddaughter is sharp as a whip. But that can come with its challenges. She recently made another kid in her daycare cry. When asked why she did what she did, her answer was, "I wanted to see what she would do." Maybe she's gonna be a scientist.
Song(s) of the month: RosalÃa’s album Lux
At the end of last year I listened to a couple of songs from RosalÃa’s album Lux. They caught my attention, but I didn’t get around to listening to the whole album. I recently read a review of her New York City concert by Lindsay Zoladz who is the best music reviewer out there in my opinion. After reading her review I devoted some time to this incredible album. It’s been looping on my phone now for my drives to hiking trails and back and forth to visit grandkids. I can’t get enough of it. It’s like nothing I’ve heard. Unless you know the 13 different languages she sings on the album you won’t know the exact meaning of each song without doing some research, or Google translating. Yes, 13 languages. Most of it is in Spanish, which isn’t even her native language (Catalan is). But still. She spent three years preparing this album, studying hagiography (the biographies of saints) and language. The result is stunning. It was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, along with a long guest list of singers. I keep hearing something new every time I play it. And my favorite songs keep changing. Music has always spoken to me as much as lyrics have, and the music on this album tells a good part of the story. I’ve researched some, but not all of the songs and I have a couple of them for you to listen to/watch below. There are hundreds of websites and videos devoted to breaking down this album, its meanings, its vocal range and the different languages. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there will be college courses dedicated to its study. One of the saints she studied, from east Asia (can’t remember if it was China or Japan) disfigured her own face so that she wouldn’t be a temptation to the Buddhist monks with whom she hoped to study; it was the inspiration for the song Porcelana (Porcelain). On the song Yugular (Jugular) she was inspired from a verse in the Koran about how Allah is closer to you than your jugular vein. Of course Joan of Arc is the topic of one song, and there are many other incredible historical figures that she tries to represent in this unique artistic achievement. She was asked how she made the decision on which songs to sing in which language. Her answer was that if the saint she was studying was from a certain country, she would sing in that language because it felt more real to her. For RosalÃa this album, based on interviews I've watched, seems to be about how to be grounded in today's world and still be close to God or to your spiritual self. The album is a bit like a religious experience; it's operatic, cinematic, and symphonic. And yet, she still calls it a pop album because she wants it to reach everyone. She realizes it's a stretch to ask your fans to listen to a one hour album in 13 languages, with a huge variety of music, but she thinks they will. She believes that the best way to listen to it is to turn out the lights, put on some headphones and play it all the way through, in the order she released it. Playing it in your car on the way to and from hikes is a pretty good way too. I was driving my one-year-old grandson to my house the other day and he was crying; I put on the album and he stopped, and actually started humming along to some of the songs. It's that good. The album has already won several awards, including a sweep of the Spanish Academy of Music Awards andRosalÃa won International Artist of the Year at the Brit Awards. I'm fairly sure it will win big at next year's Grammy Awards (unless maybe Taylor Swift releases another album...). I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. She is a visionary talent. Here are four songs I like, but they could change depending on which day it was. Do yourself a favor, carve out an hour of time, put on some headphones and put the album on. You’re welcome.
Berghain (Mountain Grove) – She released this song as a teaser ahead of the album release and it’s easy to understand why. She was inspired to write it by reading about the life of Hildegard of Bingen who was a writer, composer, philosopher,mystic, visionary, and medical writer in the 12th century in what today is Germany. It’s a rousing rendition depicting a sort of darkness (depression? abusive relationship?). In an interview with The Guardian, she said of the song, “We all have this forest of thoughts inside us where you could get lost,” she says. “I’m not glorifying evil, but darkness is present in life. It makes me think of a quote I really like: ‘The artist who walks beside the devil, putting a hand on his shoulder, can expand our understanding of wickedness.’ I agree so much. Sometimes, when you put opposites beside each other, you can understand both better.” Lux is Latin for light. “There had to be passages that were darker in order for the light to be even brighter.” At the end of the official video (which has won several awards) she turns into a dove; did she die or did she find salvation? No idea. The album version (and official video) ends with some shouted expletives based on an old vulgar quote from Mike Tyson about Lennox Lewis that may not be appropriate for everyone. That part is bleeped out in the version I have here. It’s in German and Spanish (and some English from Bjork!) and this live version from the Brit Awards in London will get your attention. Stay until the frenetic ending. Sample lyrics:
His fear is my fear Seine Angst ist meine Angst
His anger is my anger Seine Wut ist meine Wut
His love is my love Seine Liebe ist meine Liebe
His blood is my blood Sein Blut ist mein Blut
The flame penetrates my brain Die Flamme dringt in mein Gehirn ein
La Perla (The Pearl) – The benefit of listening to the album is that you get to hear the transitions between songs and see which songs follow each other to tell different stories. This song follows Berghain and is in Spanish. It’s much gentler music, a sort of waltz. It’s a woman reflecting on a past abusive relationship who now sees her tormentor for what he was. Her takedown of him is devastating, and judging from concert footage I've seen it's relatable because the women in the audience are loudly singing the lyrics along with her. Here are some lines:
Hey, peace thief Hola, ladrón de paz
Minefield for my sensitivity Campo de minas para mi sensibilidad
He's so charming, star of senselessness Él es tan encantador, estrella de la sinrazón
A mirage, gold medal in being a mother***er Un espejismo, medalla olÃmpica de oro al más cabrón
You've got the podium of disappointment Tienes el podio de la gran desilusión
an emotional terrorist un terrorista emocional
the world's biggest disaster el mayor desastre mundial
Here’s the entertaining official video for the song:
Mi Cristo Piange Diamanti (My Christ Cries Tears of Diamonds) - From a reddit post I read: "Lyrically, the song was inspired by the life of Clare of Assisi and the deep, intense, and complex devotion involved in dedicating one's life to a higher power. It explores the idea of transforming sorrow and human vulnerability into something transcendent." It's sung in Italian and takes the form of an opera's aria. That voice. It may be her most emotional song on the album; I've seen video of her singing this in concert as tears fill her eyes. Sample lyrics:
There's always something of you that I still don't know
La Reliquia (The Relic) – As I understand it, the song is how one can leave relics of their self in different places sort of like how relics of some saints are held as holy in various places around the world. I love the variety of music in this pretty song. Violins, drums, flamenco clapping, piano, her voice. And then the wild ending. All of the lyrics are great, talking of all she has lost in various cities (she lost her faith in D.C., like so many of us). Here are some lines:
I'm not a saint but I'm blessed No soy una santa pero estoy blessed
But my heart has never been mine Pero mi corazón nunca ha sido mÃo
Gavilan Ridge towards Gold Hill near Taos, NM – I hiked Gavilan Ridge back in October and the Aspens were really showing off that day. I mentioned then that the climb to the ridge was 2,300 feet in 2.7 miles which is…steep. I had planned to hike another 3 miles or so east along the ridgeline towards Gold Hill today, assuming that the ridgeline was fairly flat. Wrong. I only ended up walking another 1.7 miles because I had to gain another 1,000 feet for that. I ended up stopping in a beautiful gap/saddle where I rested my weary legs while surrounded by pure beauty in every direction. I had a great view of Gold Hill which is one of the great northern New Mexico hikes. As tough as this ridge was, I want to come back and complete it to Gold Hill (when I’m in much better shape). I think that a car shuttle will be necessary to make it a 10 mile day instead of a 14 mile day with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain.
It was a perfect day up here with temps in the 50s and 60s and a cool breeze. The first three quarters of a mile or so is fairly easy until you cross Gavilan Creek. Then it gets steep as you climb 1,000 feet in the next mile to reach the first of five increasingly beautiful meadows. As you pass the next four meadows in another three quarters of a mile and 900 feet of elevation gain, you finally reach Gavilan Ridge where you can take a breather. It’s actually better to take your breather about 50 yards east of the ridge so that you can have some better views. You can make this a somewhat less grueling hike if you stop at the 3.5 mile mark. At this point you have some really spectacular views of the many ridges and canyons that spread out towards the Taos Ski Valley. I ended up at the 4.4 mile mark which is even more beautiful but requires more climbing and some scrambly rock with a pretty bad outcome if you fall. It’s truly beautiful up here and there wasn’t a soul on the ridgeline. There are a couple of places where the trail peters out, but it’s not too difficult to find where it picks up again. Can’t wait to get in better shape so I can hike the ridge all the way to Gold Hill.
Sunlit trees near the trailhead
Views from the 2nd meadow
Views from higher up on the ridge
More of a goat trail up here
Gold Hill on the left from the saddle I stopped at
Great views all along the ridge
Obligatory dead tree shot
Dead tree pointing the way to the ski valley
Trail art
The faint trail heading back along the ridge
Back down in the flower filled meadows
Floral views
Snake stick
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit – I had read somewhere that this 2004 book by super-activist Rebecca Solnit was never more needed than in today's world. I understand that point because we certainly do seem to be in a dark time, politically, and we could certainly use some hope. However, after reading most of this book I came away with less hope. The last couple of chapters helped to alleviate this feeling a bit as she made some excellent points which I'll get into soon.
The book was written in the middle of the Bush Jr. presidency, just as the Iraq war was raging. Her purpose in writing the book was to point out all the many times in Earth's history where activism has succeeded in making changes for the better. But all of these examples seem to blow away like so much Saharan dust as we've seen many of the rights of Blacks, immigrants, and women reduced in just the past few months, along with our collective belief in medical and climate science. Has all that progress been for naught? That's what I wondered as I read this 22-year-old book as news that the Voting Rights Act was deemed unnecessary by the Supreme Court, immigrants with zero criminal history are being imprisoned and mistreated, and women's bodily autonomy rights are being reduced. Along with fossil fuel companies' recording record profits in the wake of yet another unnecessary war and the rise of previously defeated diseases making a comeback due to the rise of the anti-vaxxers running the country's medical organizations. I certainly enjoyed reading about all the work normal folks have done over the years to improve the lives of others, some I'd not heard about before. People are amazing. And that was her point in the last couple of chapters. She addressed the aftermath of 9/11 and of Hurricane Katrina (she wrote an addendum after the original publication date) when ordinary people did extraordinary things to help their fellow humans. Even when the politicians and media were using those disasters to evoke fear and hatred of others (Muslims, Black folks in New Orleans) and to promote unnecessary wars. Will we ever get to the point where politicians begin acting like ordinary American heroes? I'm not sure. Here are some lines;
wars will break out, the planet will heat up, species will die out, but how many, how hot, and what survives depends on whether we act.
The focus on survival demands that you notice the tiger in the tree before you pay attention to the beauty of its branches. The one person who’s furious at you compels more attention than the eighty-nine who love you. Problems are our work; we deal with them in order to survive or to improve the world, and so to face them is better than turning away from them, from burying them and denying them. To face them can be an act of hope, but only if you remember that they’re not all there is.
On the West Texas–Mexican border is the small Latino community of Sierra Blanca, where another nuclear waste dump was planned but defeated. Go east to Oklahoma and you’ll arrive in the sites where in 1993, after years of work, environmentalists, including the group Native Americans for a Clean Environment, and the Cherokee Nation shut down 23 percent of the world’s uranium production ...All these places are places of absence, or at least the absence of devastation, a few of the countless places in which there is nothing to see, and nothing is what victory often looks like.
it does seem that the countercultural left hijacked progressive politics and made it into something that was almost guaranteed to alienate most working people.
Ranch families generally love their land and know it with an intimacy few environmentalists will arrive at; some have been there for a century and want to be there for another one. And they too, like farmers everywhere, are being afflicted by price drops produced by globalization and the industrialization of the rural (the factory-like corporate systems for producing meat, vegetables, and grains)...Widespread coalbed methane drilling in Wyoming has devastated a lot of ranches and pushed Republican ranchers into coalition with environmentalists, as have sprawl, resort development, water crises, and the need to restore depleted land in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Lynne Sherrod, who ranches near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and heads the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, recalls, “The environmentalists and the ranchers were squared off against one another, and while we were fighting, the developers were walking off with the valley . . . We found out we had a lot more in common than what kept us apart.”
Principal Ada Rosario-Dolch, who on the morning of September 11 set aside concern for her sister Wendy Alice Rosario Wakeford (who died in the towers) to evacuate her high school two blocks away, went to Afghanistan in 2004 to dedicate a school in Herat, Afghanistan, that included a garden memorializing (her sister).
In the evacuation of the towers, John Abruzzo, a paraplegic accountant, was carried down sixty-nine flights of stairs by his coworkers.
A young man from Pakistan, Usman Farman, told of how he fell down and a Hasidic Jewish man stopped, looked at his pendant’s Arabic inscription, and then, “with a deep Brooklyn accent he said, ‘Brother if you don’ t mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us. Grab my hand, let’s get the hell out of here.’ He was the last person I would ever have thought to help me. If it weren’t for him I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and debris.”
For the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleanians were invited to ring bells, lay wreaths, pray, encircle the Superdome—that miserable shelter of last resort for those stranded in the hurricane and flood— and, of course, listen to music and dance in the streets to second-line parades, but also to keep volunteering and rebuilding. (Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of that disaster is the vast army of citizen volunteers who came to the city’s aid, when the government didn’t, and are still doing so.)
This is the time to find your place in it, if you haven’t yet. And for the climate organizers to do better at reaching out and offering everyone a part in the transformation, whether it’s the housebound person who writes letters or the twenty-year-old who’s ready for direct action in remote places. There’s a role for everyone, and it’s everyone’s most important work right now.
I think you have to hope, and hope in this sense is not a prize or a gift, but something you earn through study, through resisting the ease of despair, and through digging tunnels, cutting windows, opening doors, or finding the people who do these things.
Beaver Mountain Loop from Deer Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park – This loop is normally a 4.5 mile moderate walk from the end of Upper Beaver Meadows Road. So I was planning to add another hike somewhere else afterwards. That turned out not to be necessary because Upper Beaver Meadows Road was closed today. I didn’t see any official notice on why it was closed but it looked like they were putting in a helicopter pad. I regrouped with myself and decided to try and access the loop from Deer Ridge which is where the Deer Mountain trailhead is. That ended up making this a 7.8 mile walk with 1,400 feet of elevation gain. I’ve hiked part of the loop previously when I walked up Windy Gulch along the eastern portion of the Ute Trail back in November of 2021. There would normally be lots of people on this loop in June, but with the road closure I saw only two horseback riders the entire day. It was awesome to have this beautiful hike all to myself. There are magnificent views of Longs and other big peaks in the park along the entire walk. It was a good animal day today too. Other than the two horses, I saw several deer, a turkey, some elk, and the bluest bluebird I’ve ever seen (it was so pretty out here among all the brown and green). There were some nice rock outcroppings where I spent several minutes resting and just taking in this beautiful scene of these snow-capped mountains with two beautiful meadows below (Moraine Park and Beaver Meadows). This is a very underrated trail that I highly recommend when the Upper Beaver Meadows Road is open. At only 4.5 miles, you get a lot of bang for your buck, and you will likely see many bucks. I also got to check off a few other trails that I hadn’t been on before. I’m getting close to having hiked nearly all the official trails in the eastern part of this beautiful National Park.
View from the trailhead
This buck didn't stop here
Turkey trotting
Floral view of Longs Peak
Beaver Meadow on the left, Moraine Park on the right
My lunch spot among some boulders
The winding Big Thompson River
Trail art
Pretty views in Beaver Meadows
Some bull elk chillin'
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (translated by Humphrey Davies) – When my wife and I were in Jordan in May of 2011 I received a notice from the State Department of possible demonstrations at the Israel-Jordan border crossing due to Israel’s Independence Day. I asked the driver we hired about it. He is a Palestinian refugee living in Jordan. He said, “Ah the Nakba! The Catastrophe!” On May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself a country after a brutal war which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Israelis celebrate it as their Independence Day while Palestinians commemorate it as the Nakba or Catastrophe, the day they lost their homeland. To be safe, we ended up cutting our Jordan trip a day short in order to cross the border a day earlier than planned. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how that day meant something so different to two groups of people. I suppose it’s not much different than the way Native Americans feel about our own Independence Day. These were my memories as I finished this incredible book, which itself was about memories. Khoury has been called the James Michener of the Arab world. Like Michener (Hawaii, Texas, Centennial), he has written epic historical fiction that rings truer than actual history books. This book of Khoury’s has been called the Palestinian magnum opus and the Palestinian Odyssey. It’s a difficult read due mainly to the Arabic names, and some of the cultural references and historical events that I don't know enough about. But the stories. Wow.
In the book, Khalil is a “doctor” in a deteriorating hospital in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon. He’s not a real doctor but received three months of medical training in China which qualified him to work as a doctor in the refugee camps. He has been tending to Yunes, a revered former Palestinian fighter (Israelis call them terrorists) who has fallen into a coma after a stroke. Yunes is sort of the spiritual father of Khalil’s and Khalil is hoping to revive his “father” by retelling him the stories of his life, which turn out to be stories of the Palestinian diaspora (this is sort of a riff on 1001 Arabian Nights in which Scheherazade tells stories in order to keep herself alive). For the book, the author (who is not Palestinian, but a Lebanese Christian) spent years interviewing Palestinian refugees in their various camps (aka slums) throughout the Middle East. The stories that Khalil tells Yunes are these true stories that the author collected in his interviews. The stories about the Palestinian diaspora are intermixed with the personal love stories of both Khalil and Yunes. As a Palestinian fighter, Yunes had to leave his wife and true love Nahilah and their children in the refugee camp while he fought for his homeland. He would occasionally slip through the border patrols to see his wife and meet her in a cave that they called Bab al-Shams (Arabic for Gate of the Sun). If he was caught, he would be sent to prison or worse. He spent a lot of time in prison anyway, with its solitary confinement and various tortures. So many of the stories were heartbreaking; one that stayed with me was when a Palestinian woman walked for miles to once more see her lifelong home which had been occupied by a Jewish woman after 1948. The Jewish woman knew who she was right away and invited her in. Can you imagine? A home that you and your family have lived in for generations was taken away and you are now a visitor in that home. The Jewish woman offered to give her the stone urn that was special to her, but the Palestinian woman refused, saying that it was made from the earth of that home and belonged there. It reminded me of one of the best books I’ve ever read about the Israel-Palestine conflict: The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan. The other story that stayed with me was this one which I’ve copied right from the book: Nuha said her grandmother had told her about three young men who’d approached her and how they’d pelted her with stones. She’d told them she was so-and-so, the daughter of so-and-so and that this was her house, so they pelted her with stones. “‘I told them I was staying.’ “‘I told them this was my house, why did you destroy my house?’ “‘I told them they were stupid because they’d cut down so many olive trees.’ “‘I told them these were Roman olive trees. How could anyone dare cut down Christ’s olive trees? These were Father Jebran’s olive trees.’ “‘I told them lots of things.’ “She said she told them she didn’t care – ‘You took the land – take it. You took the fields and the olives and everything else – take them. But I want to live here. I’ll put up a tent and live here. It’s better than the camp. The air is clean here. Take everything and leave me the air.’ “The three young men backed away and started throwing stones at her. “‘They were afraid,’ she said. “The stones started raining down on her and piled up around her and she became a bundle of wounds.
It’s a long book at nearly 600 pages but it’s worth it for all the incredible stories. Here are some lines (I’ve not included the many gruesome scenes that are part of any war). I thought that the conversation I list first below was brilliant:
He said he didn’t want to see his sister, had no interest in any family meeting, that it was up to us Palestinians to assimilate within the Arab countries (‘You’re Arabs like the rest of the Arabs’) and that he didn’t understand our insistence on living in the refugee camps, which had come to resemble Jewish ghettos: ‘Go and become Syrians and Lebanese and Jordanians and Egyptians, so that this blood-drenched conflict can come to an end.’ I thanked him for his advice and said, ‘Thank you, and you too. Why don’t you, my dear European German colonel, become assimilated in Europe? Go and assimilate yourself instead of giving me lessons in assimilation, and then the problem will be over. We’ll assimilate with the Arabs, you can assimilate with the Europeans, this land will be deserted, and we can turn it into a resort for tourists and religious fanatics from every nation. What do you say?’
From his accent, I could tell that he was from Syria, from the village of Maaloula where the houses seem to grow out of the rock and the people still speak Aramaic and pray in the language of Christ.
They took the land and we watched like someone watching his own death in a mirror.
My father used to grow watermelons. After the Israelis moved in, the watermelons belonged to them.
He said only one thing before being sentenced: “This is the land of my father and my forefathers. I am neither a saboteur nor an infiltrator. I have returned to my land.”
That was on the night of May 1 of ’48. You’ll never forget this date because you tattooed it with a piece of smoldering iron onto your left wrist. On that day Ain al-Zaitoun was wiped out of existence. The Israelis entered the village and demolished it house by house. It’s as though it had never been. Later, they planted a pine forest on the site of the village.
“When the Israelis entered al-Birwa, they blew it up house by house. They didn’t take our clothes and rags. They were like madmen. They blew up the houses and began bulldozing them; they trampled the wheat and felled the olive trees with dynamite. I don’t know why they hate olives.”
She doesn’t believe in the possibility of our returning to Palestine. “If we go back, we won’t find Palestine, we’ll find another country. Why are we fighting and dying?
Two men I didn’t know asked permission to fetch water, and the officer told them to follow him. They walked toward the spring. We heard the sound of two bullets. The officer returned, and the men didn’t. After that no one dared to say he was thirsty.
this country must belong to its people, and there is no moral, political, humanitarian, or religious justification that would permit the expulsion of an entire people from its country and the transformation of what remained of them into second-class citizens.
Two women walking behind a blind man, in the blackness of the night, in a devastated land. We walked for endless hours.
What kind of an engineer?’ “‘A civil engineer.’ “‘Where did you study?’ “‘In Cairo.’ “‘They know how to teach engineering there?’ “‘So so. It’s not bad,’ I said. ‘The people who built the Pyramids can build a house.’
Zainab lost her firstborn son in the Israeli air raid on al-Fakahani in ’82, and she still sings to him. I see her, when she’s all on her own, cradling her arms as though she were carrying a baby and I hear her singing
I found him among the weeping women. Lamenting and wailing, the women had just been dropped off in Lebanese Red Cross vehicles. Women, children, tears, pushing and shoving in front of the missing persons registration office; women telling of rapes, of executions against walls, of bodies being dragged through streets like in Roman times.
Pawnee Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Ward – Pawnee Peak is one of the mountaintops that I can see from my backyard, so hiking it has always been a goal. Back in August of 2021 I tried to hike it but had to turn back after reaching the pass due to rain and hail. The forecast for today called for no chance of rain anywhere in Colorado, so my daughter-in-law and I headed up to Brainard Lake to start our 12.5 mile hike. It would be a 10.5 mile hike from the Long Lake trailhead but that doesn’t open for vehicles until July 1. There were lots of people at Brainard Lake on this pretty late spring day. Temps were in the 40s at 7:30am to start the hike but a fleece kept us warm enough with all the uphill climbing we were doing. The trail was fairly busy for the 3.2 miles to the very pretty Lake Isabelle. At this point we headed right and practically straight up. Of the 2,600 feet of elevation gain, 600 feet were gained in the first 3.2 miles, while 2,000 were gained in the last 3 miles. Pawnee Peak is at 12,943 feet and believe it or not there are 63 peaks in Colorado that are higher than Pawnee Peak but still under 13,000 feet! So many peaks. This is a great resource for all those peaks. The views above Lake Isabelle get better and better with each step, especially with all the wildflowers out at this early date. We only saw 4 other people above Lake Isabelle, and three of them were running! Running! I’m guessing now that they were doing the Mount Toll, Pawnee Peak, Shoshoni Peak traverse which seems torturous to me. Up on Pawnee Pass we got great views of Lake Granby and the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. The pass and the peak are on the Continental Divide where waters to the west flow to the Pacific and waters to the east flow to the Atlantic. So many jagged mountain peaks up here in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It’s really spectacular. Once at the pass, we headed up to the peak which gains about 500 feet in less than half a mile. Slow going, but we made it (I’m pretty sure DIL could have done this much faster if I wasn’t there…). The wind was really ripping up here today; probably 50mph gusts which conspired to try and blow us off the mountain. We hunkered down in a rock shelter on top for snacks and rest. The hike back down was just as beautiful and a bit more enjoyable even though we (I) were (was) getting pretty tired near the end. We didn’t spot any moose on the hike (lots of fresh moose poop though) but saw a big bull on the drive out. Another beautiful day in this beautiful area of Colorado.
Brainard Lake near the trailhead
Snow and water with Niwot Ridge in the background
Beautiful Lake Isabell
Winding waters of the South St. Vrain
Bridges to cross
Lots of bridges
Lake Isabell from higher up
DIL checking out Apache Peak on the right
Me pointing to our destination
A few small snowfields to cross
Little Blue Lake and Blue Lake below
DIL at the peak
Five lake view from the top
Lots of rocks to climb
Pawnee pass
The lighting was right for this shot of the South St. Vrain
Muscular bull moose on the drive out
More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen – I’ve read two previous books by Anna Quindlen, One True Thing and Every Last One. Both were great. Now make that three great books of hers that I’ve read. There are others and I’ll need to read them also. I’ve stated before that, for me, Quindlen is right up there with Anne Tyler (The Accidental Tourist) and Marilynne Robinson (Gilead series) among the very best at writing about family dynamics. This latest work touched me nearly as much as One True Thing. I don’t know how she does it, but I’m glad she does.
Polly Goodman is a literature teacher at an all-girls high school in New York. She’s in her lower 40s and has lived a previous life in a bad marriage but has now found love with a good man (her last name is Goodman, not his). She and Mark have been unable to conceive a child that they both want desperately, so part of the story is the clinical process of IVF and all the emotions that involves. She is part of a book club with three other women, all good friends, one of whom, Sarah, is her best friend. In this book club, they decided long ago that they didn’t want to actually read any books to discuss, they just wanted to hang out with each other every month. So, they all bring the required book, but none of them read it. Her friends in this book club give her a DNA test kit as a sort of gag gift for her birthday. After sending in her sample, she eventually receives a message stating that someone wants to reach out to her as a possible unknown relative. Hmm. She decides sure, why not and ends up meeting 19-year-old Talia who is searching for her family roots after her mother has tragically died. Turns out Talia is black (Polly is white), so they have lunch anyway and laugh about the fact that the DNA test was defective. However, probably due to Polly’s work with young women in her job as a high school teacher, the two develop a relationship and Polly eventually meets Talia’s father, grandmother, and mostly absent grandfather. Talia’s father is white; and has weird pointy ears like Polly…hmmm.
A lot happens in the book before the big reveal about a secret tryst in the family, including Polly’s best friend having a reoccurrence of her cancer that had been in remission. We meet Polly’s incredibly supportive and hilarious brother Garrison. We also meet her good husband Mark’s remarkable family. Sarah’s diagnosis and Mark’s parents end up connecting in the most beautiful way after a damaging storm. The IVF clinic gives Polly the bad news that they’ve done all they can do. And there is an ex-student of Polly’s (one of her best) who ends up needing Polly’s support after an emotional breakdown in college. All of these storylines are told with great care and beauty. Even Mark’s job as the head veterinarian at the New York Zoo makes for a great story. It all comes to a head all at once: Sarah’s tragic ending, the DNA test results and a searing discussion between Polly and her cold and hard mom, Polly’s dad’s health in the memory care facility, and even a surprise for Mark and Polly after years of trying everything to have a baby. So much of life is included in this relatively small novel. It’s magic. Just go read it. Here are some lines:
It had taken me ten minutes that day to finally choke out my decision to leave Benedict, at which point Garrison had cast his eyes toward the ceiling and said, “Thank you, God.” “You don’t even believe in God,” I’d cried.
“Is it Alzheimer’s?” I’d asked my mother. “The doctors said they could run more tests to pin it down more specifically,” she had said. “I didn’t see the point. If I had to remove the mirror in the hallway because he thinks his reflection is some stranger who has broken into the house, does it really matter what we call it?”
“You wouldn’t believe how many women come in for therapy with their mothers,” Jamie had added. “I have a colleague now who does nothing but mothers and daughters.”
“Do you want ears or mouth?” Sarah asked sometimes. The first time she’d said that, Jamie had said, “That’s good. I’m using that. That’s really good.” Ears or mouth. Listening or advice.
I’d never told Mark that there’d been a pregnancy before, and that I’d exorcised it, and that in some little superstition closet of my mind, where lots of people keep their religions, I believed I couldn’t have now what I’d not wanted then.
She was a familiar type, the kind of woman who once followed the Grateful Dead, who knows what each tarot card means, who did yoga when it was for centering the mind and not for bathing suit season. She may have actually been at Woodstock
Garrison reached across me to pat Mark’s knee. “He is a treasure,” Garrison said. “A goddamn treasure. Don’t ever let him go. He’s one of the only truly good people I know. Even our mother likes him.”
Soon after Mark and I married, the two of us were sitting by the water, and she said, “You wound up with the easiest of my boys. He got just the right combination of being loved and being left alone.”
“Time passes,” she said. “Things change. You think, Oh, this is a tragedy. And then time passes, and it’s not. It’ s over. At my age, the edges of everything seem…softer, I suppose? Oh goodness, I sound like an old fart.”
looking around at the nice comfy couches and the long wooden table in the dining room. It was a little like what Lou and Skipper’s house would have been like if four boys hadn’t rampaged through it for years.
But the reason I’d fallen in love with him, once I realized he wasn’t a con, a sham, a user pretending he was a giver, was that he was that rarest of all things: a contented person. “I’ve never been to an alpaca farm,” he kept saying, the same way he might say “I’ve never been to the Sistine Chapel.” He liked Rome, and London. It’ s that he liked other, more ordinary things just as much.
Marriage. Like calculus only without the answers.
“Everyone says, Let’s have a baby. No one says, Let’s spend the rest of our lives creating a fully functioning human being.”
Battle Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park – Another peak that I can see from my house! Two in one month! My daughter-in-law and I weren’t able to connect on hiking this week due to schedules. She ended up hiking Chief Mountain and Mestaa’ehehe Mountian near Idaho Springs. I was going to do the same on the following day but changed my mind after I was able to get a Bear Lake Road permit in Rocky Mountain National Park. AllTrails has a route to Battle Mountain that starts at the Chasm Lake/Long’s Peak trailhead near Allenspark, but I wanted to try to get to the top from Bear Lake Road to the west. I started at the Storm Pass trailhead which only has a four-car lot, but there is some parking along the road if needed. I got there early enough (6:30am) to get one of the four spots. Here’s a photo tip: if you park at the Storm Pass trailhead, walk along the path towards Glacier Creek. There are spectacular views of Hallett Peak and all the canyons that lead to all the places that make Bear Lake Road so popular. I walked along this path, took some photos, then after a third of a mile took the Boulder Brook trail heading south. This trail is very steep for around a mile or so before becoming moderately steep. When I hiked it in August of 2021 there were mushrooms and wildflowers everywhere. No mushrooms yet in June, but there were lots of flowers and the small waterfalls along this trail are beautiful. Just as I reached the end of the super steep part of Boulder Brook trail, I heard a twig branch snap and looked across the brook. There was a majestic bull elk staring back at me. I’m sure we were both curious and afraid of each other, but I took a few photos and headed up the trail, leaving him to his foraging. At 2.5 miles I reached the junction with the North Longs Peak Trail which some people use to access Longs Peak. I headed south and east on this trail and at about mile 4.5 it opens up onto the tundra where the views explode.
I saw only one other hiker on this trail. He had made it to the keyhole just before the final treacherous climb to Longs Peak but said there was still too much snow and he wasn’t experienced enough to try that. I passed a few marmots and was considering making it to Granite Pass where the North Longs Peak trail connects to the East Longs Peak trail. Then my plan was to get to Battle Mountain from the pass. But as I passed by the shadow of Battle Mountain, I checked my map and it was only 0.2 miles of off trail from where I was, so I headed straight up to the peak instead of walking the extra 0.6 miles to the pass and then back to the peak. It was a good call because that extra mile would have been tough; I was exhausted after this 11 mile, 3,200 foot elevation gain hike. The views from Battle Mountain are great. Longs Peak looms so close, but 2,000 feet above me. And the huge meadow east of the mountain below was where I had a great animal experience back in September of 2024 on a Chasm Lake hike; I witnessed a large heard of elk running down Battle Mountain from the west and they totally spooked these 4 moose that were merrily munching on leaves below them. I watched the moose hightail it out of there when they saw the elk. That was very cool. Today I just ate lunch and took in all the beauty. It was a hazy day with some fires on the Western Slope, but the weather was perfect with sunny skies and not much wind. It was in the 40s to start, but the lower 60s at the finish. Another beautiful day up in Rocky Mountain National Park.
A walk in the woods to start
Lots of pretty little waterfalls on the way up
...like this one
A kind of surreal photo of the bull elk
More pretty waterfalls
Up on the Tundra with views of Longs Peak to the left
Song(s) of the month: RosalÃa’s album Lux 
Gavilan Ridge towards Gold Hill near Taos, NM – I hiked Gavilan Ridge back in October and the Aspens were really showing off that day. I mentioned then that the climb to the ridge was 2,300 feet in 2.7 miles which is…steep. I had planned to hike another 3 miles or so east along the ridgeline towards Gold Hill today, assuming that the ridgeline was fairly flat. Wrong. I only ended up walking another 1.7 miles because I had to gain another 1,000 feet for that. I ended up stopping in a beautiful gap/saddle where I rested my weary legs while surrounded by pure beauty in every direction. I had a great view of Gold Hill which is one of the great northern New Mexico hikes. As tough as this ridge was, I want to come back and complete it to Gold Hill (when I’m in much better shape). I think that a car shuttle will be necessary to make it a 10 mile day instead of a 14 mile day with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. 
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit – I had read somewhere that this 2004 book by super-activist Rebecca Solnit was never more needed than in today's world. I understand that point because we certainly do seem to be in a dark time, politically, and we could certainly use some hope. However, after reading most of this book I came away with less hope. The last couple of chapters helped to alleviate this feeling a bit as she made some excellent points which I'll get into soon. 
Beaver Mountain Loop from Deer Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park – This loop is normally a 4.5 mile moderate walk from the end of Upper Beaver Meadows Road. So I was planning to add another hike somewhere else afterwards. That turned out not to be necessary because Upper Beaver Meadows Road was closed today. I didn’t see any official notice on why it was closed but it looked like they were putting in a helicopter pad. I regrouped with myself and decided to try and access the loop from Deer Ridge which is where the Deer Mountain trailhead is. That ended up making this a 7.8 mile walk with 1,400 feet of elevation gain. I’ve hiked part of the loop previously when I walked up Windy Gulch along the eastern portion of the Ute Trail back in November of 2021. There would normally be lots of people on this loop in June, but with the road closure I saw only two horseback riders the entire day. It was awesome to have this beautiful hike all to myself. There are magnificent views of Longs and other big peaks in the park along the entire walk. It was a good animal day today too. Other than the two horses, I saw several deer, a turkey, some elk, and the bluest bluebird I’ve ever seen (it was so pretty out here among all the brown and green). There were some nice rock outcroppings where I spent several minutes resting and just taking in this beautiful scene of these snow-capped mountains with two beautiful meadows below (Moraine Park and Beaver Meadows). This is a very underrated trail that I highly recommend when the Upper Beaver Meadows Road is open. At only 4.5 miles, you get a lot of bang for your buck, and you will likely see many bucks. I also got to check off a few other trails that I hadn’t been on before. I’m getting close to having hiked nearly all the official trails in the eastern part of this beautiful National Park.
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (translated by Humphrey Davies) – When my wife and I were in Jordan in May of 2011 I received a notice from the State Department of possible demonstrations at the Israel-Jordan border crossing due to Israel’s Independence Day. I asked the driver we hired about it. He is a Palestinian refugee living in Jordan. He said, “Ah the Nakba! The Catastrophe!” On May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself a country after a brutal war which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Israelis celebrate it as their Independence Day while Palestinians commemorate it as the Nakba or Catastrophe, the day they lost their homeland. To be safe, we ended up cutting our Jordan trip a day short in order to cross the border a day earlier than planned. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how that day meant something so different to two groups of people. I suppose it’s not much different than the way Native Americans feel about our own Independence Day. These were my memories as I finished this incredible book, which itself was about memories. Khoury has been called the James Michener of the Arab world. Like Michener (Hawaii, Texas, Centennial), he has written epic historical fiction that rings truer than actual history books. This book of Khoury’s has been called the Palestinian magnum opus and the Palestinian Odyssey. It’s a difficult read due mainly to the Arabic names, and some of the cultural references and historical events that I don't know enough about. But the stories. Wow. 
Pawnee Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Ward – Pawnee Peak is one of the mountaintops that I can see from my backyard, so hiking it has always been a goal. Back in August of 2021 I tried to hike it but had to turn back after reaching the pass due to rain and hail. The forecast for today called for no chance of rain anywhere in Colorado, so my daughter-in-law and I headed up to Brainard Lake to start our 12.5 mile hike. It would be a 10.5 mile hike from the Long Lake trailhead but that doesn’t open for vehicles until July 1. There were lots of people at Brainard Lake on this pretty late spring day. Temps were in the 40s at 7:30am to start the hike but a fleece kept us warm enough with all the uphill climbing we were doing. The trail was fairly busy for the 3.2 miles to the very pretty Lake Isabelle. At this point we headed right and practically straight up. Of the 2,600 feet of elevation gain, 600 feet were gained in the first 3.2 miles, while 2,000 were gained in the last 3 miles. Pawnee Peak is at 12,943 feet and believe it or not there are 63 peaks in Colorado that are higher than Pawnee Peak but still under 13,000 feet! So many peaks. This is a great resource for all those peaks. The views above Lake Isabelle get better and better with each step, especially with all the wildflowers out at this early date. We only saw 4 other people above Lake Isabelle, and three of them were running! Running! I’m guessing now that they were doing the Mount Toll, Pawnee Peak, Shoshoni Peak traverse which seems torturous to me. Up on Pawnee Pass we got great views of Lake Granby and the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. The pass and the peak are on the Continental Divide where waters to the west flow to the Pacific and waters to the east flow to the Atlantic. So many jagged mountain peaks up here in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It’s really spectacular. Once at the pass, we headed up to the peak which gains about 500 feet in less than half a mile. Slow going, but we made it (I’m pretty sure DIL could have done this much faster if I wasn’t there…). The wind was really ripping up here today; probably 50mph gusts which conspired to try and blow us off the mountain. We hunkered down in a rock shelter on top for snacks and rest. The hike back down was just as beautiful and a bit more enjoyable even though we (I) were (was) getting pretty tired near the end. We didn’t spot any moose on the hike (lots of fresh moose poop though) but saw a big bull on the drive out. Another beautiful day in this beautiful area of Colorado.
More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen – I’ve read two previous books by Anna Quindlen, One True Thing and Every Last One. Both were great. Now make that three great books of hers that I’ve read. There are others and I’ll need to read them also. I’ve stated before that, for me, Quindlen is right up there with Anne Tyler (The Accidental Tourist) and Marilynne Robinson (Gilead series) among the very best at writing about family dynamics. This latest work touched me nearly as much as One True Thing. I don’t know how she does it, but I’m glad she does. 
Battle Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park – Another peak that I can see from my house! Two in one month! My daughter-in-law and I weren’t able to connect on hiking this week due to schedules. She ended up hiking Chief Mountain and Mestaa’ehehe Mountian near Idaho Springs. I was going to do the same on the following day but changed my mind after I was able to get a Bear Lake Road permit in Rocky Mountain National Park. AllTrails has a route to Battle Mountain that starts at the Chasm Lake/Long’s Peak trailhead near Allenspark, but I wanted to try to get to the top from Bear Lake Road to the west. I started at the Storm Pass trailhead which only has a four-car lot, but there is some parking along the road if needed. I got there early enough (6:30am) to get one of the four spots. Here’s a photo tip: if you park at the Storm Pass trailhead, walk along the path towards Glacier Creek. There are spectacular views of Hallett Peak and all the canyons that lead to all the places that make Bear Lake Road so popular. I walked along this path, took some photos, then after a third of a mile took the Boulder Brook trail heading south. This trail is very steep for around a mile or so before becoming moderately steep. When I hiked it in August of 2021 there were mushrooms and wildflowers everywhere. No mushrooms yet in June, but there were lots of flowers and the small waterfalls along this trail are beautiful. Just as I reached the end of the super steep part of Boulder Brook trail, I heard a twig branch snap and looked across the brook. There was a majestic bull elk staring back at me. I’m sure we were both curious and afraid of each other, but I took a few photos and headed up the trail, leaving him to his foraging. At 2.5 miles I reached the junction with the North Longs Peak Trail which some people use to access Longs Peak. I headed south and east on this trail and at about mile 4.5 it opens up onto the tundra where the views explode. 
