by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 10, 2024 | Lessons from Yellowstone, Navigating Tough Terrain
“Where do the rangers keep the animals at night?” Standing across the camera counter from the man who asked that question, I almost laughed. Surely he was joking. But I looked at him and saw he was serious. This guy has to be at least thirty. I thought. How could he...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Jan 1, 2023 | Navigating Tough Terrain
A long, long time ago—forty years last month—my parents took my little brother and me to Yellowstone. If you’ve read around here long, you know my life has never been the same. (Thank you, Mom and Dad.) One of the sights I most remember from that first visit is...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Sep 15, 2022 | Navigating Tough Terrain
Summer’s green is wearing thin. Before long, it will give way to the colors of autumn. Between the arrival of unrelenting heat and a steady green march across the lawn, some years it seems we go straight from winter to summer without stopping for spring. This doesn’t...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Mar 30, 2022 | Navigating Tough Terrain
“It’s easier if you walk along the edge,” my husband said. We were taking on unfamiliar terrain. I knew how to hike the packed dirt trails in the midwest and the mountains. But in Utah’s high desert where my KEENS tossed up a spray of sand with every step? Not so...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Dec 8, 2021 | Navigating Tough Terrain
Every winter, I direct a troupe of middle and high school actors. From the very first year, there has always been that rehearsal. If you have ever worked with a group of kids, you know what I mean: mass distraction, constant talking, and management issues of all...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 17, 2021 | Navigating Tough Terrain
Two Octobers ago, I paused on the bank of the Gardner River and wondered just exactly why I would choose to be standing there in a swimsuit in twelve-degree air. We’d been there before–at least, my husband, two older kids, and I had. At that particular stretch of the...