Category: The Inner Workings

Short, potentially scary, insights as to what goes on in my brain.

July 30, 2024 / / Family

My hand reached blindly into the predawn darkness, feeling for one of the two dangling chains on the bedside light. Catching one, I slid my hand down until it ran…

February 29, 2024 / / Place

Editor’s Note: Back in the early days of the pandemic (April/May 2020) I took a writing class with Kati Standefer where she provided the above prompt. Earlier I documented the…

October 31, 2023 / / NOLS
June 30, 2023 / / Climbing

Editor’s note: I haven’t done a lot of recreational writing as of late. This past winter most of my writing has been technical, professional, writing. In the process a co-creator…

March 31, 2023 / / Place

iFrames are not supported on this page. Explore the map above or click here to go to the ArcGIS Online hosted version. In December of 2010, I launched jaredspaulding.com. Memories…

February 14, 2023 / / Climbing
November 7, 2022 / / Family

My neighbors got a “new” truck last summer. The white, extended cab, Ram 2500 with an eight foot bed sits and idles its diesel engine on the street; there is…

July 31, 2022 / / 616

Years of outdoor education have helped build a habit of referencing things by cardinal directions and their ordinal “in-betweens”. “Use the entrance on the south door” I might say to…

June 30, 2022 / / The Engine of Survival

Editor’s Note: This piece evolved from some prompts I had in a writing class I took two years ago from author Katherine Standefer. Pieces of the current news coverage have…

March 19, 2022 / / Family

Devil’s Slide rises almost 800 feet above my boyhood hamlet of Stark. As a child the deciduous forest that stretched northward across the railroad tracks from our house felt immense.…

November 7, 2021 / / Family

Author’s Note: The November 7th of 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of my father’s unexpected passing.  He was 46.  In the 23rd year after his death I actively engaged with…

October 26, 2021 / / Family

My tears take the long way to the pillow. They trace a line over my cheek bone and down to my chin, being slowed by week-old stubble, before depositing themselves…

September 19, 2021 / / 616

The pandemic reinforced my love of tea and tacos.  Here is the beginning and the end to 2021’s daily grind: ~ the pot: with Andy home it is a two…

August 28, 2021 / / Horses

I lost Luke twice.  He was my first love.  I remember the tears rolling down my cheek as I wrapped my arms around him.  I buried my face into his…

July 31, 2021 / / Alpine Notes

I have no tattoos.  That story is one of lazy summer days, friendship, and happenstance.  But it is not for here.  Here is where I tell you what tattoos the…