Author Archives: shaylaparadeis

Extremities….yes, for it’s been a scorcher. Mostly, however, I want to talk about old friends and new family. The last week we’ve had heat index in the 100s and we are low in elevation since the Northern boundary of the Shenandoah ridge. In fact yesterday I walked through the Cumberland Farms area. I struggle withContinue reading “F Words”

When I was in 10th grade, I had an exceptional English teacher named David Devine. He was the right combination of loving and harsh, bringing life messages that were what I needed at the time. “Think of the world” was one of them. “Only boring people get bored” was another. There was also a charmingContinue reading “My Bottom Line”

Invite it all. Invite the discomfort, the messy, even the icky. Invite the exposed, the embarrassing, and the not-so-graceful. Invite the miscalculation, the unrealistic, and the sass. Invite the dramatic, the poor-form, and don’t forget the hypocritical. You might as well laugh. Do more than laugh. Enjoy it. I’d say invite the ego, but itContinue reading “Host”

The heat is here, and fair enough, when it comes to Spring in Appalachia, I’ve gotten off easier than the norm. For the first 5 weeks, I enjoyed cooler temperatures and bug-less nights. The heat started poking its head into my long hiking days about two weeks ago, and, naturally, the bugs followed. It’s fascinatingContinue reading “There is a Season”

I have to ask myself, who do I want to be when a gift arrives? Do I pause, do I give it honor, do I tell it thank you? Or do I treat it like something I don’t have time for? Do I behave like it’s a road-block, or do I appreciate the twist inContinue reading “Holed-Up”

Sure, this endeavor is physical. That’s the part we answer the most questions about. The mileage, the temperatures, the states, the stress injuries, the animal encounters…measurable details which most hikers were already reciting, on constant reel, in their heads anyway. Therefore, we can answer those questions readily. Now, I finally have the space and theContinue reading “Tremendous”

The animal I am now is something else. My wild is wilder. My free is freer. My happy is all but offensive. My favorite song writer says, “If you’re not getting happier when you get older, than you’re f@&*ing up.”  I feel strong and adapted. I feel ready, in so many ways. Or more so,Continue reading “The Animal That I Am”

Here we are. Lunch. On a Sunday afternoon. I picked a spot next to two headstones. Two dead people. Why? Because I’m like that. I thought that would be the right kind of company and I wanted to process some things that are. They are a couple, I’m pretty sure. George and Eva Gragg. SheContinue reading “Dining with the Dead”

Sara-Tide and I are up to the same shenanigans as always. She came to give me road support and then I rushed along, true to form, to meet her at road crossings for a beer and a lot of laughs. We got to spend a night in Gatlinburg with Jessie, and a night singing byContinue reading “Little Has Changed”

What I know about love, is that it exists in surprising forms. Perhaps nature is the easiest one for me to access. It feels like all I have to do is breathe, or step. Yet, it turns out to be the thing on your mind, or the thing in your pocket, or the memories thatContinue reading “And Then What Happened?”