Tongues in Trees

Tongues in Trees is a collection of lyrical, deeply reflective essays rooted in the canyons, rivers, and high country of northern Colorado. Moving between memory and landscape, these stories explore inheritance, solitude, loss, resilience, and the quiet ways the natural world teaches us who we are. Set among rivers that refuse pretense, forests that remember, and mountains that demand honesty, the book traces a life shaped by place—by family legacies carried forward, by seasons that repeat and change us, and by moments of reckoning that arrive whether we invite them or not. There are stories of childhood and parenthood, of accidents and recoveries, of fire and water, of the visible world and the unseen presences that linger within it. Written in a voice that is both plainspoken and poetic, Tongues in Trees invites readers to slow down, pay attention, and listen more closely—to the land beneath their feet and to the questions that rise when the noise falls away. These essays are not about escaping the modern world, but about finding perspective within it, guided by the steady wisdom of wild places that continue to speak, if we're willing to hear them.