All I could think as he was speaking was that, if he touched me at all, all the miles I’d walked, the pain I’d felt, the beauty I’d drunken like milk, like good wine making me happy, the four million steps I’d taken, would all add up to nothing. They’d be stolen. They’d vanish like the teeth children lose when they get hit. Only after the blood was washed away would I see that they were gone.

~ Aspen Matis

Aspen Matis Aspen Matis Memoir Hiking Self Motivation

Living as Wild Child, I could no longer be Debby Parker comfortably — this name that I’d been given at birth that defined me before I’d had the chance to define myself.

~ Aspen Matis

Aspen Matis Aspen Matis Aspen Matis Memoir Hiking Memoir Young Woman

Each year, Gracie Henderson moons a thousand strangers, collects their shocked faces in an annual photo album.

~ Aspen Matis

Aspen Matis Aspen Matis Memoir Memoir