Patrick Michael Murphy's Blog
May 12, 2017
High Hope
There's a sharp morning light warming our southern Colorado land. Yesterday 4 inches of snow wet down the earth and the trees that gave way with broken branches.
The nuthatch, Stellar's jay, pine siskin, and western tanager are hungry for seed and prance about on our deck, happy and getting full fast.
I planted bee and butterfly bushes too early for the cold that came, but the dozen ponderosa pine not 12 inches tall look deep green and well on their way to joining the proud regional royalty of their family.
After a long period of drought we've had two wet winters with plenty of spring precipitation and the land gives off the energy of power, vibrancy, and hope...
The nuthatch, Stellar's jay, pine siskin, and western tanager are hungry for seed and prance about on our deck, happy and getting full fast.
I planted bee and butterfly bushes too early for the cold that came, but the dozen ponderosa pine not 12 inches tall look deep green and well on their way to joining the proud regional royalty of their family.
After a long period of drought we've had two wet winters with plenty of spring precipitation and the land gives off the energy of power, vibrancy, and hope...
February 12, 2017
The Art or the Ache of Moving.
At last count, I have moved over 30 times in my soon to be 60 years.
It just happened. My father worked for Illinois Bell Telephone back in a day when a promotion often meant going to another town to live.
At 20 I joined the military partly to get out of Illinois, to see the world, to learn a trade, to be part of something big. Then, the trade I learned and took back into civilian life called for a move if I wanted to make more money. And for one reason or another the moving just never stopped.
True, sometimes the move was same city, so to speak, to another home within an area. I've lived in 10 states, several times returning to a state (different area) more than once.
Since I left Illinois, 40 years ago, I have never lived in any home for more than five years. I moved to most of those places on my own.
I know some of you live in your childhood town, even your childhood home. I imagine we've lived very different lives. But both are beautiful in their own way.
I have become a resident of a state in every quadrant of America. From IL, to CO, to UT, to GA, to MD, to NM, To TX, to WA, to AK, to ID...
I sometimes sit and recall all the homes, the neighborhoods, the streets, fields, mountain paths, and alleyways I've walked or jogged. I think of the people I have met, whom I may have helped, and who certainly assisted me. I have acclimated, hibernated, assimilated, and vacated. I feel as though I know my country... although that may well be a fool's presumption.
You, those of you who have remained in your home towns, I see you as familiar with friends and places in a way I will simply never know. I see roots growing from between your toes, and I mean that in a good way. You may well feel completely at home, completely at ease with where you belong. The place IS you and you ARE the place. Perhaps the wanderbug has never caused an itch for you, but left you at peace with the same view out your window for decades. You've watched your world change around you, and you've gauged time's passing by the death of trees, the building of new buildings, the leaving of others around you.
I miss my little home town of New Lenox, Illinois, for the wonder and amazement I experienced when there. I miss the faces and companionship of those I knew, those I grew with, those who shaped me.
But I am also endlessly grateful for all I have seen, friends along the way, the different views that have become My View, and all the new experiences I've had that people in different regions of our great land have, each day, unknown to the rest of us.
There are trade offs to everything, right? But we are all still here, still doing what we do, still learning, still living, in our own way.
I hope that some of you who read this will say hello, whether we know each other or not. Tell us what it looks like out your window, or in your home, or what you had at your favorite diner today, or what is going on in your town... tell us how life has felt doing it like you've done it.
And, wherever you are, don't forget to watch a sunrise or a sunset, and feel that gratitude...
It just happened. My father worked for Illinois Bell Telephone back in a day when a promotion often meant going to another town to live.
At 20 I joined the military partly to get out of Illinois, to see the world, to learn a trade, to be part of something big. Then, the trade I learned and took back into civilian life called for a move if I wanted to make more money. And for one reason or another the moving just never stopped.
True, sometimes the move was same city, so to speak, to another home within an area. I've lived in 10 states, several times returning to a state (different area) more than once.
Since I left Illinois, 40 years ago, I have never lived in any home for more than five years. I moved to most of those places on my own.
I know some of you live in your childhood town, even your childhood home. I imagine we've lived very different lives. But both are beautiful in their own way.
I have become a resident of a state in every quadrant of America. From IL, to CO, to UT, to GA, to MD, to NM, To TX, to WA, to AK, to ID...
I sometimes sit and recall all the homes, the neighborhoods, the streets, fields, mountain paths, and alleyways I've walked or jogged. I think of the people I have met, whom I may have helped, and who certainly assisted me. I have acclimated, hibernated, assimilated, and vacated. I feel as though I know my country... although that may well be a fool's presumption.
You, those of you who have remained in your home towns, I see you as familiar with friends and places in a way I will simply never know. I see roots growing from between your toes, and I mean that in a good way. You may well feel completely at home, completely at ease with where you belong. The place IS you and you ARE the place. Perhaps the wanderbug has never caused an itch for you, but left you at peace with the same view out your window for decades. You've watched your world change around you, and you've gauged time's passing by the death of trees, the building of new buildings, the leaving of others around you.
I miss my little home town of New Lenox, Illinois, for the wonder and amazement I experienced when there. I miss the faces and companionship of those I knew, those I grew with, those who shaped me.
But I am also endlessly grateful for all I have seen, friends along the way, the different views that have become My View, and all the new experiences I've had that people in different regions of our great land have, each day, unknown to the rest of us.
There are trade offs to everything, right? But we are all still here, still doing what we do, still learning, still living, in our own way.
I hope that some of you who read this will say hello, whether we know each other or not. Tell us what it looks like out your window, or in your home, or what you had at your favorite diner today, or what is going on in your town... tell us how life has felt doing it like you've done it.
And, wherever you are, don't forget to watch a sunrise or a sunset, and feel that gratitude...
February 4, 2017
Favorite experience?
I happen to love the outdoors. What I write often reflects this. Backpacking is one of my favorite activities. I especially enjoy doing it in new places, full of fresh new smells, sights and sounds. The possibility of seeing a fellow creature.
Traveling to new wild lands and new cultures, immersing myself into them, often simply witnessing and often participating, this has been one of the greatest joys in life for me.
I'm interested, what has been a favorite place, a favorite experience, for you?
Traveling to new wild lands and new cultures, immersing myself into them, often simply witnessing and often participating, this has been one of the greatest joys in life for me.
I'm interested, what has been a favorite place, a favorite experience, for you?
January 7, 2017
FREE E-book!
TRAIL OF ICE
Like my Facebook page and send me a message there. First 3 requests will receive a free e-book copy of my new novel, Trail of Ice -- A Lot Can Happen on the Way Home. Strings attached? Yep. I only ask for your honest review on Amazon and Goodreads when you're done reading...
https://www.facebook.com/PatrickMicha...
Have a great day!
Happy Reading!
Patrick
Like my Facebook page and send me a message there. First 3 requests will receive a free e-book copy of my new novel, Trail of Ice -- A Lot Can Happen on the Way Home. Strings attached? Yep. I only ask for your honest review on Amazon and Goodreads when you're done reading...
https://www.facebook.com/PatrickMicha...
Have a great day!
Happy Reading!
Patrick
December 28, 2016
Practicing UP.
I looked through our copy of AARP magazine this morning. Yes, I am of that age, and I imagine some of you reading this are too. There's a piece in there about fixing what ails you. One of the ails it mentions is depression. Now, some of you just clicked off this page. Others are willing to read a bit further and still others were interested by the D word. Most of us aren't clinically depressed, but many experience deflated emotions and no longer live to our fullest.
Our mate has moved on. The kids have disappeared. The career is unfulfilling or over. The parents are passed. The world is changing. Health is deteriorating. Finances are troubling. Life simply feels stale.
It's a fact that many fall into depression as they age, and for people of all ages, this is the time of year sadness blooms. We've also lost influential people this year, who changed us, left an impression, sang our song, wrote our story, played our part, stood for what we believed in. Sometimes, the departure of those we admire and love creates feelings of loneliness, or the impression of a bulls eye on our forehead.
As the AARP story detailed, we have options. All of us. For 20 years of my life I studied people through the viewfinder of my camera. I went on to assist others in the life changing event of purchasing a new home. And for the past 8 years I've run a wellness and fitness coaching business. I'm no trained counselor or psychologist, but I've made some observations. The people who keep the doors open, who look for options, create them, and take on new life practices seem happier, more adjusted and healthy. Like my friend Charlie who, in his mid-eighties, works out with a trainer three times a week, plays tennis a few times per week, writes, plays, and teaches music. He reads constantly and he's even edited some of my writings. He travels.
Travel is a listed treatment for depression. Other often cited activities that keep our hearts and brains lifted are exercise, sunlight, learning a new language or instrument, dancing, practicing a creative outlet, giving, volunteering for something we believe in, building a social circle, experiencing nature.
The list goes on, but these are just so many clichéd words on a page without one of them included: practice. In order to lift our spirits, our health, our place in life we must practice the options that bring about that change. Practice means to do something every day, every week, month, or year, depending on the activity.
Excuses are a practice too, but they are not the answer. Wallowing isn't a listed cure. I know, I looked it up.
Right now, I feel a giant sinking of emotion going on for many of my fellow Americans. I feel it too. No matter what generation you are, we must not become the age of desperation, conflict, or collapse. Let's instead seek what makes us happy and vibrant and put those things into practice.
Happy 2017! I, for one, am still thrilled to be here.
Our mate has moved on. The kids have disappeared. The career is unfulfilling or over. The parents are passed. The world is changing. Health is deteriorating. Finances are troubling. Life simply feels stale.
It's a fact that many fall into depression as they age, and for people of all ages, this is the time of year sadness blooms. We've also lost influential people this year, who changed us, left an impression, sang our song, wrote our story, played our part, stood for what we believed in. Sometimes, the departure of those we admire and love creates feelings of loneliness, or the impression of a bulls eye on our forehead.
As the AARP story detailed, we have options. All of us. For 20 years of my life I studied people through the viewfinder of my camera. I went on to assist others in the life changing event of purchasing a new home. And for the past 8 years I've run a wellness and fitness coaching business. I'm no trained counselor or psychologist, but I've made some observations. The people who keep the doors open, who look for options, create them, and take on new life practices seem happier, more adjusted and healthy. Like my friend Charlie who, in his mid-eighties, works out with a trainer three times a week, plays tennis a few times per week, writes, plays, and teaches music. He reads constantly and he's even edited some of my writings. He travels.
Travel is a listed treatment for depression. Other often cited activities that keep our hearts and brains lifted are exercise, sunlight, learning a new language or instrument, dancing, practicing a creative outlet, giving, volunteering for something we believe in, building a social circle, experiencing nature.
The list goes on, but these are just so many clichéd words on a page without one of them included: practice. In order to lift our spirits, our health, our place in life we must practice the options that bring about that change. Practice means to do something every day, every week, month, or year, depending on the activity.
Excuses are a practice too, but they are not the answer. Wallowing isn't a listed cure. I know, I looked it up.
Right now, I feel a giant sinking of emotion going on for many of my fellow Americans. I feel it too. No matter what generation you are, we must not become the age of desperation, conflict, or collapse. Let's instead seek what makes us happy and vibrant and put those things into practice.
Happy 2017! I, for one, am still thrilled to be here.
December 23, 2016
Release of new novel
Good day!
Announcing the release of my new novel, TRAIL OF ICE, in E-book format with paperback soon out.
Do you like adventure, love stories, personal journeys? Here's the description:
Seth McCartan feels like life is waging war on him. He only finds peace when looking at the world through the viewfinder of his camera. When his New York City job and love life end abruptly, he has no choice but to take work in the wilds of Alaska. Covering a cross country sled dog race seems basic enough, but soon the struggle to understand his past is joined by a new challenge... surviving the present. They say that fighting for your life can make you want to live it.
You can find the link to purchase the book on my author's page, or find on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NGYWGF8/...
Thank you! Your comments and reviews are always appreciated!
Announcing the release of my new novel, TRAIL OF ICE, in E-book format with paperback soon out.
Do you like adventure, love stories, personal journeys? Here's the description:
Seth McCartan feels like life is waging war on him. He only finds peace when looking at the world through the viewfinder of his camera. When his New York City job and love life end abruptly, he has no choice but to take work in the wilds of Alaska. Covering a cross country sled dog race seems basic enough, but soon the struggle to understand his past is joined by a new challenge... surviving the present. They say that fighting for your life can make you want to live it.
You can find the link to purchase the book on my author's page, or find on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NGYWGF8/...
Thank you! Your comments and reviews are always appreciated!
July 8, 2016
Kids Today
I'm not a dad. Not even a great uncle. I never had the urge to have children. I think I was just too footloose, and then there was that world population issue. Now I'm 59. I look at kids and smile. Cute little buggers.
I run a store with my partner now. It's a camping supply store in a national park. Travelers from everywhere come in and look at what we have, sometimes buy stuff.
I love the kids. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the grownups too. It's an international parade of faces. Voices. Styles. Flip flops, labeled t-shirts, hiking boots, rasta coifs, sunglasses, bracelets, tattoos, muscle, fat and callouses, pearly whites, bug spray, clan connectivity. A live, organic, theater.
I just wanted to say (and I know this is a highly limited and unscientific observation collected in a place where people take their vacations) but, I am impressed. The kids are OK. They come in shyly, or ready to prove themselves for the first time spending money placed into their little hand, and they are polite. By and far, a great majority, have respect. Some want to talk, others don't, but I am experiencing children like never before in my life. I find myself wanting to give them things, to look into those eyes, to hear what they have to say. Yeah, you parents out there, your kids are giving me hope. In a world where we all see a little too much fear, pain, sadness and doubt... I now see kids, your kids, moving through it all, on vacation, baby, and making me smile. Gotta love'm. Gotta think maybe we'll make it after all.
I run a store with my partner now. It's a camping supply store in a national park. Travelers from everywhere come in and look at what we have, sometimes buy stuff.
I love the kids. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the grownups too. It's an international parade of faces. Voices. Styles. Flip flops, labeled t-shirts, hiking boots, rasta coifs, sunglasses, bracelets, tattoos, muscle, fat and callouses, pearly whites, bug spray, clan connectivity. A live, organic, theater.
I just wanted to say (and I know this is a highly limited and unscientific observation collected in a place where people take their vacations) but, I am impressed. The kids are OK. They come in shyly, or ready to prove themselves for the first time spending money placed into their little hand, and they are polite. By and far, a great majority, have respect. Some want to talk, others don't, but I am experiencing children like never before in my life. I find myself wanting to give them things, to look into those eyes, to hear what they have to say. Yeah, you parents out there, your kids are giving me hope. In a world where we all see a little too much fear, pain, sadness and doubt... I now see kids, your kids, moving through it all, on vacation, baby, and making me smile. Gotta love'm. Gotta think maybe we'll make it after all.
April 28, 2016
Rain on Bison
It is raining this morning on the largest high mountain valley in the United States, the San Luis, in south central Colorado. Under the great dark clouds and the misty sheets of water falling lightly on what is nearly a desert, a herd of about fifty bison feed, heads down, humongous. It's cactus, sagebrush country even though a once great river runs through it, and the ancient brown black beasts look totally at home and unconcerned with ominous weather, beautiful, at peace, home.
April 15, 2016
The View
Once again, thanks to my sweetheart and the stars, the space where I live, write and read has an inspirational view.
For me as a writer, I find myself staring out over mountains and forests as I pause to consider a word, or sentence, or motivation. Sometimes I do get distracted, as a bluebird flies past, a deer grazes, or the light on the distances soothes my soul. But the inspiration and tranquility I receive more than make up for the few moments... lost. But then, we never lose a moment in which we are present and alive.
I as well love to read out on the deck, or in winter near a window, where I may also pause to consider a character, an act, or a passage written by another soul out there somewhere in their own personal world.
For some, a city-scape view would motivate, or bring solace and joy. Others, the ocean or their own living room holding a spouse, children, or scruffy the dog...
The view plays a big part in our lives, no matter what we are doing, fills us with comfort and a sense of belonging. Or a desire for change.
What is your view and how does it change you in the moment? Does it add to or detract from your desires?
Have a great weekend reading, writing, playing, working... take a moment to appreciate the views before you, whatever they may hold.
Patrick
For me as a writer, I find myself staring out over mountains and forests as I pause to consider a word, or sentence, or motivation. Sometimes I do get distracted, as a bluebird flies past, a deer grazes, or the light on the distances soothes my soul. But the inspiration and tranquility I receive more than make up for the few moments... lost. But then, we never lose a moment in which we are present and alive.
I as well love to read out on the deck, or in winter near a window, where I may also pause to consider a character, an act, or a passage written by another soul out there somewhere in their own personal world.
For some, a city-scape view would motivate, or bring solace and joy. Others, the ocean or their own living room holding a spouse, children, or scruffy the dog...
The view plays a big part in our lives, no matter what we are doing, fills us with comfort and a sense of belonging. Or a desire for change.
What is your view and how does it change you in the moment? Does it add to or detract from your desires?
Have a great weekend reading, writing, playing, working... take a moment to appreciate the views before you, whatever they may hold.
Patrick
April 2, 2016
Italy, My Travels with Chief
Hi Everyone, I wanted to let you know that I've released a new Kindle version book on Amazon, entitled, Italy, My Travels with Chief, Our Not So Ordinary Vacation.
It is loaded with 200 photographs, links to places to stay, eat, and visit, and will take you to some pretty interesting places in what we found to be an amazingly beautiful, generous, and challenging country.
I hope you'll consider taking the journey with us, and I look forward to your feedback and reviews here on Goodreads and Amazon. I want to know if this story represents a worthwhile investment for you.
Thank you for all your past readership! As a writer I hope to entertain and empower, and I can tell you, readers help make writer's dreams come true.
You can find all my books here on my page, or, here's a link to the book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/ITALY-My-Travel...
It is loaded with 200 photographs, links to places to stay, eat, and visit, and will take you to some pretty interesting places in what we found to be an amazingly beautiful, generous, and challenging country.
I hope you'll consider taking the journey with us, and I look forward to your feedback and reviews here on Goodreads and Amazon. I want to know if this story represents a worthwhile investment for you.
Thank you for all your past readership! As a writer I hope to entertain and empower, and I can tell you, readers help make writer's dreams come true.
You can find all my books here on my page, or, here's a link to the book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/ITALY-My-Travel...
