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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I am a geologist, and that is the lens through which I view the world. I’m also a writer, and that’s another lens through which I observe, both the concrete and the metaphorical.

My first day as a professional geologist more than 30 years ago, I worked on a drill rig collecting and logging geotechnical samples on a bridge abutment as traffic whizzed by on I-85 east of Greensboro, North Carolina. Today, from my library in the shadow of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico, I’m working on a different kind of bridge, a metaphorical one that I’m building between my life in the sciences and that in creative writing.

As the GeologistWriter, I aspire to share my understanding of and wonder in the landscape and the earth processes that shape it, while also exploring the mysteries of the paths we walk in life, that complex terrain of the human heart and relationships. I pursue these explorations in stories and essays that I hope will entertain you, and maybe trigger some reflection of your own.

I invite you to wander these three paths with me:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1480391102307{padding-right: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Ground Work

Solid ground. A strong foundation on which to build a home, a career, a life – we all want that. It doesn’t just appear, it has to be assembled. Sometimes literally, stone by stone or brick by brick, and sometimes figuratively, step by step finding the way to who we are. I have always been a hiker, and I’ve taken many steps – up mountains, down canyons, through deserts, into forests then out of them – to find my way. I’m still walking. It’s all ground work.

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Rock of the Month

Nearly every child is a wannabe geologist. Didn’t you have a rock collection? Some of us never get over it. After two degrees and 30 years as a professional geologist, I still love picking up rocks as much as I did when I was a kid. Welcome to my shoebox of rocks.

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Venus & Mars Go Sailing

Put a woman and a man in a 35-foot sailboat for four months, stir it up with wind and shake it up with waves, and see what kind of cocktail you mix. Sometimes it’s sweet. Sometimes it’s bitter. It’s always interesting, with as many ups and downs as the tides. Most often it’s smooth sailing, but it will come as no surprise that the Skipper and First Mate can have vastly different takes on a situation, usually a stressful one. What’s unusual on our boat is that Venus is the Skipper and Mars the First Mate. If we back up far enough to gain perspective, the Venus-Mars dichotomy can be funny, but you can only back up so far on our boat without falling overboard.

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