Diamond-Cut Life

I’m looking today at a confluence of one of my favorite sports — running — and a worthy pursuit that I have done in the past — fundraising. An energetic woman named Linda Quirk at Run 7 On 7 is leading 300 others in running seven marathons on seven continents and raising pledges to [...]

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I got up before dawn this morning and went running at first light in Mount Tabor Park, near our house. Near a 100-foot tall Douglas Fir tree, I heard unusual scrabbling noises, so I stopped in my tracks to investigate.
I saw an adult raccoon spreadeagled on the tree at about waist height, looking over its [...]

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Running is just about the most natural sport possible, the sport our pre-Industrial ancestors did, the one that doesn’t burn any fossil fuels. You’d think that fun in the time of global warming would make liberal use of running — and it would, but you’d need to rethink Hood To Coast.
Hood To Coast is the [...]

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With Summer Solstice and the first day of summer coming up on Saturday June 21, my theme this week will be earth-friendly recreation, or Fun In The Time Of Global Warming.

Professional work tends to keep us up in our heads, thinking so hard we practically get divorced from our bodies. I really hate that about [...]

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Since I’ve been working pretty hard lately, I’m taking a mini-vacation here in Scottsdale, Arizona (next to Phoenix), visiting my friend Jean for a few days. The idea is to make my own little self more sustainable, and sure enough, my spirit is going “Ahhhhhhhhh” in response to the rugged desert beauty, the brilliant sky, [...]

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I’m writing on the south bank of the Columbia River here in Boardman, Oregon (population 3,500). I went running last night at sunset . . . oh my. Beautiful; what a joy. I found deer tracks on the sandy beach and looked to the west, where Mount Hood was a tiny, rosy peak in the far distance.

Oregon’s only coal-fired energy plant was just a few miles to the south. This

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