THE HOMEWARD JOURNAL

Richard Louv’s 2005 book “Last Child in the Woods” sparked an international movement to overcome what he diagnosed as our collective Nature Deficit Disorder — the idea that our children and families increasingly lose the innate connection to nature that is so vital for our healthy physical and emotional development. The other day, I asked Rich if we’ve made any progress since he first wrote the book.

A lot of us dread winter. But Katherine May, in her beautiful book, "Wintering — The Power of Rest and Retreat During Difficult Times", shows us that winter is actually an essential season for our mental health. Hers is a point that I've been feeling for a long time: That we need to embrace winter for its power to comfort.

Aloha is the greeting of the Hawaiian islands, renowned the world over. But behind this most beautiful way of saying Hello hides much deeper meaning. What Hawaiians really mean when they say Aloha will surprise and enchant you.

I’ve dedicated my artistic career to photographing the way the American West captures the human imagination like maybe no other stretch of land in the world. Along the way, this land taught me some valuable life lessons, lessons I believe we can all benefit from to live a more grounded life.

As our lives seemingly become busier by the day and the world spins more and more out of control, it's all the more important to create time and space to slow down. Use these expert-approved strategies to restore balance in your life and feel more grounded.

Every day, we are inundated with countless photos in our lives. But not every photograph is created equal. In this blog post, I explain how I decide what to photograph when I am out in the field — and what it takes for an image to become a piece of timeless photographic art.

“Nature is not a place we visit. It is home,” the great Gary Snyder wrote. This is the story of how I found that elusive Sense of Home in the timeless lands of the West. To do so, I had to search for answers to maybe THE central question to our happiness: What makes us feel at home?