Unredeemed Wildness
“In God's wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware.” John Muir We rode slowly through the 1988 burn area near the continental divide as a cold rain fell. Many of the blackened trees still stand, like sentinels guarding the next generation. Though the fires raged here over thirty years ago, the young trees are barely taller than the withers of my horse; a testament to the short growing season and the resilience of nature. Given a chance, nature finds a way to restore itself. Perhaps that is why we seek it when we need personal restoration - it whispers in the face of sometimes catastrophic loss, "all is not lost, let's begin again". Wilderness engenders hope, the balm of humanity. At the trailhead, I traded three hundred seventy-five horses for one. My new conveyance had a single seat and a lot less cargo space. Four hooves repla
