Indy Perro's Blog

There are moments when I wonder if we’ve become so distracted that we don’t recognize the difference between reality and our expectations. We live in personal, single-serving worlds the parameters of which are defined by our presuppositions and biases. We talk past one another without pausing to listen. We look past each other without seeing our shared humanity. And we wonder why we feel so disconnected. 

Are we unable to embrace the universal in ourselves? Unable to see the individuality in ...

The moment I met Wynton, I knew my fate was intertwined with his. I can’t explain the feeling, exactly. He sat next to me, strangely attached to a human he’d only just met, and when I looked into his eyes, I felt understood. I didn’t realize how hard I would need to work to understand him, to earn the relationship he so willingly gave me. I didn’t know how much of myself I would need to release to accept him into my life. He might be a manifestation of the drive within me, the perpetual energy t...

There’s a rise on the interstate when traveling west toward my house. When I crest that rise on a clear day, I see the same mountains that I see from my office window. Several years ago, I experienced the view from that rise on that stretch of highway as if for the first time, though in truth it was, perhaps, the third or fourth. In seeing the familiar view anew, I realized I’d returned home.

Landscape shapes us, and it shapes our lives, often in ways we don’t realize. I didn’t grow up with m...

One recent morning, about an hour after dawn, I sat in a stand of pines on a mountain side with my dog Wynton. We watched a broad tailed hummingbird hound a pygmy nuthatch. As the two zipped through the branches and circled our heads, we could hear the thrum of two sets of wings. Red-breasted nuthatches and chickadees chirped higher among the needles, and a flicker rattled a trunk in the distance. Wynton and I smiled; we felt great.

The world of my youth couldn’t have been ...

I’ve been a runner my entire life. I began racing in middle school, continued throughout my adult life, and ran my most recent race in the deserts of Southern California in November a few years ago. I won my age group by more than two minutes and finished in the top two percent of runners.

There’s an inherent sense of power that comes with running competitively. When you’re in front of the pack in a distance race, you run a large secti...

The moment I met this Border Collie puppy, I knew my fate was intertwined with his. 

For better or worse, I had the pick of the litter, which sounds exciting but is actually disturbing. Rather than saying yes to one puppy, you’re actually saying no to all the others, which in this case included five of the cutest, sweetest, most lovable Border Collies and one whiner who probably grew into a wonderful dog. 

In the end, however, I feel as though fate bound Wynton and I together. Some of ...

One July a couple of years ago, I ran the Four Pass Loop near Aspen, Colorado. As the name suggests, the loop rises and drops four times, crossing four passes in an achingly beautiful swing through the mountains. I ran through haunting Aspen groves, climbed switchbacks adjacent to a waterfall, and trudged along high elevation drainage marshes. 

As much as I enjoyed the vistas that stretched for miles at the top of each pass, this run holds a special place in my heart because it was the mo...

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The post Protected: Where Does the Story Cross the Trail? appeared first on IndyPerro.

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The post Protected: When Wynton Arrived appeared first on IndyPerro.

Within a city, everywhere we turn we encounter difference: neighborhoods, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, ideologies, desires, drives, and approaches. These differences make culture possible and provide the possibility for depth. At times, the vastness of difference may appear chaotic, but in the multitude, we find the birth of order. 

A city’s size manifests the dynamics necessary for organizing principles to organically arise and be individually internalized—the birth of civilization.