All the information on how to order our Book “Freedom on Both Ends of the Leash” has been moved to the end of this page. Thank You for your support always.

Winters are turning into projects besides continuously exploring these magical spaces of Big Bend. This time around is a Photo Coffee Table Book. Each photo will have a map of its location and a quote. Here are some of them. Eight years in 60 photos. Hard to choose. They will be print on demand in 11” x 13” format of the outmost quality. I am refraining from too many Sunsets!!!

I will first share this passage, narrated in a video by Jim Carry, called "Jim Carry’s Secret Life".

"My Soul is not contained within the limits of my body, my body is contained within the limitless of my Soul. I have often said I wish everyone would realize their dreams and wealth and fame so they can see you are not going to find your sense of completion. I can tell you from experience the affect you have on others is the most valuable currency you have because everything you gain in Life will rot ant fall apart and all will be left of you is what what was in your heart. ‘Within each of us, there is a silence, a silence as vast at the Universe and when we experience that silence we remember who we are’. We are not the avatars we create, we are not the pictures on the film stock, we are the light that shines through, all else is smoking mirrors, distracting but not truly compelling. ‘There is no reality except the one contained within us…’. Our eyes are not viewers, they are also projectors that are running a second story over the pictures that we see in front of us all the time, fear is writing that script. Fear is going to be a player in your Life. You get to decide how much. You can spend your whole Life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway of the future, but all will ever be is what is happening here and the decisions we make in these moments which are based on Love or Fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised out of practicality, what we want always seems to be out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dare to ask the Universe for it. I am saying that you can ask the Universe for it. Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. As far as as I can tell it is just about letting the Universe know what you want and working toward it while letting go how it comes to pass. Why not take a chance on faith, not religion but faith, not hope but faith. I don’t believe in hope, hope is a beggar, hope walks through the fire and faith leaps over it. You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world and after you walk through those doors you will only have two choices. Love or Fear. Choose Love and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart."

It is Thanksgiving Day. A Holiday which was foreign to me for so many years throughout my upbringing in Europe and all those different countries we lived in. The Sun has just made it over the ridge of Nine Points and it is officially "daytime" now. I look around me and foreign objects are laying around. A skill saw, a jigsaw, drill, screws of many sizes and shapes, hinges, latches, plywood and even a gallon of paint with its brush and rollers. Lets not forget the roller’s extension the young lady at the store said I would need and be thankful for. But today I am walking away from it all, I have to join the celebration which to me means "being thankful". It is a must even if too many will see this day as an opportunity for shopping… I will not get started on that subject.

Am I getting used to all of this? Not really… Am I enjoying the process? Not really either! Not a day goes by while I think of the minutes only it took to set up a tent and be done with it after unrolling a sleeping pad and bag! Putting together my wooden chair, grab a book, read or hike and play with Spirit. I pretty much wish I could blink and all of this, not would disappear, but would be done. Are we really some day going to live here? I cannot think about that aspect either. One day at the time, moments after moments just as Spirit lives. He has it right… I don’t at times.

A good Friend of mine, because I wrote for everyone to be today a "rock", actually posting this on our Facebook pages as I enjoy at times sharing "something" worthy…

“How hurtful it can be to deny one’s true self and live a life of lies just to appease others.” 
This quote from June Ahern I read the other day in conjunction with a video watched about "Who really are we?" summed up pretty much this present wave of the prevalent non reality of words plastered on too many Social Media platforms.
Today, maybe everyone will truly be who they are as we have much to "Thank" for just being here alive and well.
One of my favorite past photos… Let us each be the "rock" we really are.
"Happy Thanksgiving" to all my Friends that have sincerely stood by us these past years"

… wrote me herself that I was a rock. Far from it. Especially when these Holidays start their rehearsals as today. It is always the same aspect. The one books have filled me with the much needed wisdom, friends with their magic words, I know the rhetoric, I know the principles of quite much but that last step seemingly in reality is always missing. I really don’t know why it is absent. I have only found one reason of it being the “Fabric of Life”. That darn fabric with so many layers I can never get to the bottom one. I have not found an explanation. As many other aspects, it is what it is.

"The Oasis" here is a true "think" tank, an island with no storms. I cannot describe it any other way. It is for me the seed of this fruit we live through and savor one bite at the time. It is that center, that bull’s eye on the dart board. Through an email from a Friend, as we have many thinkers writing us, I am just realizing "all" is connected. We all are one way or another but also outside of us with us inside. Words, speech, thoughts and yes, also photography which is only an extension of what we see, feel and hear even if a flat photo will not quite often divulge everything that rambles inside of us. Night time especially when that blanket of darkness envelopes us unless, as here, when the full moon transforms our ceiling into a daylight look alike.

And now we are in a holding pattern! There is no fuel in the area only in Alpine. Terlingua, the Park, Lajitas, all gone waiting for a maybe delivery on Monday. Of course, as human nature dictates, this is when we want to go riding! We always want to do what we can’t. Ironic as we have some Friends visiting from Houston. I hope their vehicle has a long fuel range. I will be waiting for them while working on this upcoming Photo Coffee Table Book which in itself has opened up memory lane.

While trying to chose 60 photos I so totally feel as we are in a non moving zone, one to only unload these past years gone by so fast. Photos of myself I see, my Mother, Lance, Family. I pause as maybe Life would also but that path goes on with not too much care. Why should it? I feel as we are the only inhabitants on this island I so fondly call The Oasis.

How to order our Book.

“Freedom on Both Ends of the Leash”, our Book, is now available autographed through us for $24.99 [$19.99 + $5 S&H, Continental 48 States] by clicking the photo links on top of this page. [PayPal accepting all cards]. It is also available through Amazon in paperback or as a Kindle download. All other electronic formats are also available.
You can also order from any Bookstore and Beemerboneyard.
If ordering more than one copy through us you will need to place each order separately or e-mail me.
Please read below about rates for International Shipping and outside the 48 States
The flat shipping rate for outside the 48 States or International is $15. Please e-mail me [“e-mail me” link above] for those orders as you will have to get directly into our PayPal account bypassing the normal procedure.

Stay well…
Ara and Spirit