Updates and Reflections

This year has been . . . memorable. I'm going to miss 2011, not only because I love the number 11 and got a thrill on the 11th of every month, but because a lot of gnarly yet positive changes took place. I had a difficult slump during the summer and early fall, but I'm coming out of that and have been working on some new projects.

I'm updating Tsisnaasjini again. Somehow I drifted into writing tanka to accompany the photos. Tanka are kind of like haiku on steroids -- a form of Japanese poetry that consists of 5 lines. I've been reading tanka for several years now, but didn't begin writing them until recently. The form seems to lend itself to my haphazard, amateur study of this microcosm of the desert; with tanka, I can capture my observations in a distilled format. I can compose tanka when I'm not sitting at the computer, which is a big plus, since I spend about 15 hours a day sitting down and am always looking for an excuse to get up. I think of tanka when I'm walking, doing dishes, lying in bed early in the morning, or just puttering around picking up rocks.

The Soaking Life is a new project that Eric and I have been working on for the past few months. This blog is dedicated to the pursuit of health and happiness through sitting around in hot water until your skin shrivels up and slides off. We are posting reviews of hot springs we've visited, healthy recipes and articles about balneotherapy, or the therapeutic use of hot, mineralized water. Eric just posted an extensive bibliography of books and articles on balneotherapy. I'm about to head over there to post a blog on the health benefits of sulfur. Please stop by anytime!