When I was a boy growing up on the family farm in western Pennsylvania, I had a special place I visited often that I called the Good Medicine Camp. I stole the name from a Tom Brown, Jr. book, The Tracker. The name in the book was derived from an old native American belief that some places were “good medicine” — safe from evil spirits and good for the soul.

My Good Medicine Camp was just that — a fern-cloaked glade, skirted by towering hemlocks that ushered a shaft of sunlight through their tops and onto the mossy soil below. It was the place I went to reflect, to consider my future and to recommit myself to Nature.

The camp is no longer there, except in my mind’s eye. But, as I’ve traversed life’s serpentine path in the twenty-some years since, I’ve found that the calming, rejuvenating power of the Good Medicine Camp can be found in countless natural spaces wherever I travel, and that, by seeking out those spaces (or the memory of them) I’m able to find the same hope and inspiration I found in my special place all those years ago.

Through this blog, I’ll share my reflections on daily life, family and career, with Nature always in sight.

It’s my hope that The Good Medicine Camp will be a place you choose to visit frequently, and share with others who appreciate the balance Nature brings to life.