Cross Posted on my Substack: Prairie River Witch Newsletter
After my near miss last year, I’m living with a no regrets policy. I’m also going to “start over” and branch out a little more. I still intend to follow through with the basis of this page– wannabe backpacking, but right now where I’m going (chasing that dopamine) is writing and photography.
Some of what I’m doing translates to this blog and I plan on doing some overnight hikes with Hunter now that he’s older. Most of my writings now are a little witchy inspired and I’m moving into creative nonfiction and short fictional stories.
Here is too new things–
Some spells don’t need candles or Latin.
Sometimes it’s enough to walk barefoot through buffalo grass with your heart cracked open to the sky.
When I moved from the Ozarks to the Nebraska Sandhills, I thought I was just changing scenery. Turns out, I was changing shape. Again.
The Ozarks raised me—sharp-edged and river-strong. But the Sandhills? They’re teaching me how to rest. How to stretch. How to begin again, soft and stubborn at the same time.
Here’s the spell I’ve been living:
• One thermos of strong coffee
• One morning where the sun rises slow and gold
• A camera in hand
• A long dirt road that doesn’t care where you end up
• And this whispered charm:
“I am allowed to start over. I am allowed to grow wild.”
If you’re in your own season of shedding, shifting, or stepping into the unknown, I see you. There’s magic in motion, even when the road feels lonely.
Come walk with me.
There’s plenty of sky to go around.
—BJ (The Wannabe Backpacker)
The Wannabe Backpacker 