It’s sweet, and now it’s warm in the afternoon, and the sun is bright. Zip and I are a photography team once more; he is always alongside me, sometimes napping until I’m done. He knows not to bother me and knows he’ll get a good long neck scratching when I’m done. I brought some callas out in a thin vase and pointed them at the sun. Beautiful minutes, a love we share. He’s part of the flower art tonight.
Dusk, setting su n.
Afternoon light.
My photo assistant, flower photos. He approves or he doesn’t.
The power of light.
In the warm weather, we take flower photos together; Zip is my muse in the sunlight. When I’m done, he gets a reward, his favorite spot, a long and pure scratch to the neck. It’s a beautiful thing. Zip and I are in the sunlight; you don’t need any words.
hi,
I read Running to the Mountain about 25 years ago and since, have thought about it often. I was talking with my son this afternoon and he mentioned Thomas Merton and I remembered your “letter” to Merton, where you recommended, as I recall, that he leave the monastery, teach at Columbia. get into therapy or take an anti-depressant and marry his nurse. I no longer have your book. Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of the “letter” in your book, maybe a photo of that letter? I just now googled for it, but it didn’t come up.
I also thought of your reasons for running to the mountain when my son told me that his son, home from college for Spring break, had taken off to camp in Death Valley by himself, just as my son had done, to hike and camp in New Hampshire when he was in his early twenties, and I had done when I was fifty, to be alone in a rented cabin in the woods in West Virginia when I, a clinical psychologist, felt I needed to be alone, feeling burdened by attending to my patients, my friends and my wife and young kids. But not just to get away from, but to get away to, to be with myself in a new way.
Thank you for writing Running to the Mountain and describing your felt need to be true to yourself for a while, for your own reasons at the time. Many of us feel such a need. I’m not sure how many have strong enough motivation and courage to get away from our habitual ways of responding to what we feel is expected of us, to be alone, face what’s going on and learn about ourselves and more.
Thank you,
Pete Bloom
Alexandria, Va.
Thanks Pete, I don’t have any copies of the book. You can still get it on Amazon I believe thanks for the good words.
Absolutely love having Zip in the flower art. He is just so photogenic and such a ham. Always brightens my day. Thanks, Jon