by Natalie Ogbourne | Nov 11, 2019 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
Good morning to you on this fine autumn day! Today I’m doing something just a little different and sharing a few field notes, a gathering of what the landscape of life has been teaching me. If you have a moment to pause and ponder what the landscape of your life is...
by Natalie Ogbourne | May 28, 2019 | Navigating Tough Terrain
We set off, a dozen trainees, gravel crunching under our feet, toward the foreboding forest. We’d congregated at twilight to learn to hike in the dark. Like the rest of the greenhorns, I’d shown up with my flashlight because, obviously, we would need something to...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Mar 11, 2019 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
We left our car at the pullout, walked past the bungalow-sized glacial boulder, and started down an easy path. Short, flat, and offering a good view, the Cascade Overlook Trail promised to be a good wakeup hike. Enveloped in a thick evergreen wood, we relished the...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Feb 11, 2019 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
There is more to setting off on a hike than hopping over the back fence with a loaf of bread and a pound of tea à la John Muir–turn-of-the-nineteenth-century naturalist, writer, and outdoorsman. While his shortlist encompassed food and nutrition, survival and...
![One Question for When You’re Finding Your Way]()
by Natalie Ogbourne | Jan 21, 2019 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
The gradual slipping away of the pine-lined path went unnoticed—by me anyway. We’d set off that morning, wanting to spend just a little more time on the trail and in the park before heading home from our week in Yellowstone. Situated along the way, the Gneiss Creek...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 4, 2018 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
With winter’s chill rolling off him as he and his siblings came in from the wintry night air, my son asked, “Can we have our friends over to play boot hockey?” Flanking him, his sisters, echoed the question silently with their eyes. We live in Iowa, and of the ten...