Writing

During my junior year of high school, when I was 16, my dad sent me to a retreat for troubled teens. On the last day, they gave me a brown paper bag with 15 or so sealed envelopes inside and told me to find a quiet place to sit and open them. I walked to an old,...

This article is also featured in the Blue Beret Magazine, a printed publication of Airstream Club InternationalOh Canada! I’ve fallen in love with your Rockies. This story is about delightful new friendships and magnificent nature I stumbled upon during another summer...

This summer I drove from Florida to California for some scheduled repairs and maintenance on Coddi, my Airstream. After two weeks in California, I scurried up to Oregon for more repairs. Some issues were fixed beyond expectation while others left me scratching my...

A Metaphor for LifeWeightless, I feel held, swaddled in a fuzzy cream robe. My toes are free to wiggle about, my long auburn curls free to bob, my soul free to fly, eyes soft, cheeks gold and smooth as porcelain. Not a pain, not a worry or regret. Shoulders nimble,...

2023 was the most adventurous year of my life. This blog is a reader’s digest version; the full length version is in the works. Strap in tight, it’s a wild ride. January 2023 kicked off with me getting kicked out of the nest. Mom begged me to hit the road again,...

Each morning I venture out from my home on wheels, through a pre-dawn preserve, onto a boardwalk over sprawling dunes, and down onto a sugar sand shore. Each morning is unique, This is the inspiration for this poem.   Dear Nature Gentle, resilient, elegant, and...

I was in eighth grade eating lunch alone, near the end of a long table. A woman sat down across from me, a few feet to my right. She looked straight ahead. Her dark hair was a bit shiny, rather curly and just long enough to frame her honey almond cheeks. I did not...

“You wanna go swimming?” my friend Jill said. We were dressed in layers with jackets and pants rolled up to our shins. Our bare feet were crusted in sand. Jagged pewter cliffs towered to my right and the Atlantic churned to my left. It was 2pm and, for as far as I...

I sat on stony moss-covered ground and gazed at a pastel sunless sky, jagged mountain tops, and a glassy bay. My back was against a cold rock face—just beyond my feet, a patch of fuchsia fireweed stood straight and still, and mosquitos buzzed against the netting...

Here is my new favorite podcast interview. Take a listen to a conversation with the dynamic duo of Al and Bilos. I share several of the most profound Ah-ha moments I’ve realized along my six year nomadic journey, many I’ve yet to share publicly. Listen to the podcast...

“Nice rig!” a guy said through his truck window. We sat side by side at a red light in a quaint small town. Red brick buildings lined the main drag, bright-colored flower baskets hung from light posts, and the scent of yeasty bread browning wafted through my open...

“Hellooo in there,” a man’s voice hollered from outside. I was snuggled up under the covers in my Airstream. Soft honey morning light dripped in around the edges of my closed window shades. I was boondocking (living off grid without power or running water) in the...

January 2022 kicked off in north Florida with several winter excursions on the horizon. The first was a trip to Pensacola with my friend Jack. We facilitated two workshops at Gulf Breeze Recovery Center and camped at Gulf Islands National Seashore, where we enjoyed...

LOST I hike alone deep in a Michigan forest.Light shines down through tangledbranches. The next trail blazeis all I have to point the way. Coyotes cry. Then quiet.Frosty breath ebbs and flows.It’s too soon for cold,too late for warm. The trail fades into leaves. I’m...

"He left. He’s gone. He’s dead. Imagine he’s dead,” Mom said. I sat on my carpeted floor, naked except for panties, slumped back against my unmade bed. My bare legs splayed out in front of me like a dried up wishbone ready to be pulled. My phone laid face up in the...

“Oh my goodness,” Mom said in a whisper. She stopped mid stride and stood bolt upright like a toy soldier, but with her mittened fingers pressed against her mouth. Her eyes welled up as she took in the view of endless hills topped with autumn colored cotton candy as...

I stood on top of a Native American Temple Mound with my friend Jack. He wore a tattered Boston ball cap and looked toward an interpretive sign. The sign pictured Indigenous people in the year 1300 as they climbed up the same wooden stairs we had just used to hike to...

As bits of the hard exterior fall away I get closer to the essence of who I am.Mom and I hopped out of my truck and squealed like excited schoolgirls as we took in the views. We inspected the scenic nook on the banks of the Snake River that we’d soon claim as home. We...

I’ve come to a realization. For me to want anything different from what’s here in front of me, right now, is a version of greed. Even wanting to go deeper, to feel more, to be more, to see more, seems silly. I’ve got food on my plate, clothes on my back and air flows...

by Kristy Halvorsen   April 10, 2022Last week I saw a request for prayers on social media. A friend shared a heartfelt post about her granddaughter, let’s call her “Gracie”. This sweet soul, who turns two in about three weeks, has been under a doctor’s care for most...

by Kristy Halvorsen   March 26, 2022The last couple of months before I became a nomad were a whirlwind. Everything happened so quick that I didn’t have a chance to catch my breath. It was as if the universe knew all the wonderful things ahead, knew I needed to let go,...

by Kristy Halvorsen   February 14, 2022Remember A Short Poem: I will never know what will be. There is delicious enjoyment remembering this. I forget. Then I remember. …And repeat.   Sunrise Over Jenny Lake in the Tetons. The water ablaze, the sky on fire, the...

By Kristy Halvorsen | January 22, 2022Strange but true: this is my first share anywhere in 2022. Life feels like it’s begging for another new beginning. More than ever, I want to fall into the fresh and new, shine a light on wonder, and foster everyday curiosity that...

The Halvorsen’s lost a big part of our family on December 1st, my Dad, also a husband, brother, uncle, poppy, grandpa, cousin and friend. A beautiful string of events allowed family and friends to be together on November 20th for my step-mom’s 70th birthday party. I...

Thursday I drove in the dark towards my last of the 50 states on a two lane country road. Red lights pulsed all at once in random spots as far as I could see stretching miles and miles left to right. Every couple seconds the red lights pulsed in unison again. What a...

I lie on my back in crisp grass. My pillow is a flat rock that once served as a foundation block for Theodore Roosevelt’s North Dakota ranch. I drove almost two hours through prairies, oceans of rolling hills with wavy hay, and spiky cliffs striped with bands of...

My heart melts remembering the soft and significant embrace of chance connections. Yesterday I met a woman leaning against a post at a trail entrance. As I passed she asked me where the trail went and an hour later we were still there talking about nothing and...

Seven years ago on March 17, 2014 my world came to a screeching halt and fell into a million pieces. I cried like I had never cried before. I had just parked for a meeting in Sarasota, Florida. As I opened the door my phone rang, it was mom. That morning she had sharp...

I drove off. I left. I said goodbye to who I was. I shed misunderstandings I didn’t know were wrong. For months, maybe more than a year, I thought I made the biggest mistake of my life. A heart wrenching feeling of lostness filled my soul. I wanted to go back, but it...

I write this sitting in my Airstream trailer with the slow pitter patter of rain drops on the aluminum roof. The sound reminds me of a steal drum, but played at 1/20th speed: random notes dropped perfectly from the heavens. My bedroom window is less than 20 feet from...

The last several months have been extremely challenging for my family: Dementia/Alzheimer’s, misunderstandings, mental hospitals, police, cancer, homelessness, helplessness, guilt, anger, sadness … and lots of love. The pandemic has been a recent cherry on top of it...

“I would rather have trustworthy and satisfying answers to these questions than all the gold in the Indies. To know—not to believe, not to hope, not to have faith, but to know that the universe is friendly, that our feet are set on and intelligent pilgrimage, and that...

This Thanksgiving, I drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a historic town that was lightly dusted with fresh blanket of snow. I walked the picturesque streets in awe while snowflakes floated in the crisp air. As so often happens when coddiwompling, on my way back to my...

For the past few weeks I’ve been in Florida visiting friends, family and even my old house. It’s been nearly two years since I sold most of my stuff and drove away from the life I once had. Sitting in front of the place that used to be home felt peaceful: I could...

  I’m writing this bundled up in a hammock on a cliff-side perch above a crystal clear fast flowing river far out in the wilderness. Civilization is at least a half hour drive away, I have no shelter other than trees towering above and I am the only human here....

In the silence of a new day being born, I sit on a lakeside perch under a layer of clouds lying low like a warm blanket covering us. “Us” meaning all of us: the lake, the trees, the bases of the mountains in the distance, the birds, the buzzing and curious bugs that...

As I live like a leaf gleefully tossed about in the breeze I notice more and more how kindness is who we are. There is something about helping that is us being us. There’s been a shift: in the previous sentence I initially wrote “There is something about helping...

What might be possible if you unpredicted your journey? Many people wonder what that means. Simply put it means being open to all possibilities and not trying to forecast where you might be in the future or how you will get there. I keep thinking I understand fully...

While on a long hike to a monarch butterfly breading ground in the mountains of south central Mexico there was so much seen beyond the beautiful butterflies. From a profound Truth expressed by an eleven year old, to an experience of seeing everything (and realizing...

Coddiwompling is simple: So simple a puppy can do it, so simple a kid can do it, so simple that you can do it. Notice the carefree contented nature of puppies and little kids. They are master Coddiwomplers. They do what comes naturally and feels fun. No puppy ever...

Watching the dark waters of the Suwannee River turn shimmering orange as the sun rose over the cypress trees during Easter Sunday Sunrise Service is my first memory of church. There wasn’t a stop light in the tiny town, but there was a little church with long wooden...

A few weeks ago I went on an awesome treetop adventure course, climbing, tightrope walking, and zip-lining more than sixty feet off the ground. To make it all the way through the course without falling required a combination of balance, strength and creativity....

In the last week, the subject of "difficult" has come up several times in different contexts... here are some thoughts. I'd love to hear yours too! Leave your thoughts, ideas, or musings in the comments below. Difficult... Nothing can be difficult and everything can...

It’s January and that means it’s time to clarify your goals and make your new year’s resolutions! …Right? What if there is a simpler way to start off 2019 and REALLY enjoy the year ahead? 2018 was the first year in several decades that I had no concrete goals. Instead...

The Raven On a crisp morning deep in the White Mountain Wilderness of New Mexico, I stepped from my warm trailer in to the silent stillness of a brand new day. I was one of only a handful of people for miles and miles. Within seconds of stepping down on to the dry...

The Day I Knocked on a Neighbor’s Door and Cried I was in Texas… Sitting alone in my Airstream trailer, feeling very low, and wondering why I chose to leave my friends and family and sell almost all of my belongings to wander the world by myself. In that moment all I...

In 2006 at around 2:00am I walked into the firehouse after a medical call. Everyone was asleep except me and Randy, my EMT on the ambulance. I went straight to a small office where the computer was and sat down. Randy followed. Only the clicking of my fingers on the...

Not long ago I was engaged in an argument that could have derailed many friendships. Thankfully it didn't, but I did find myself boiling and swearing under my breath. Shortly after the argument (and while the disdain was still fresh) I began wondering how I could let...

Do you enjoy waiting? Truth be told, it’s probably tough to find someone who wakes up each morning thinking “I can’t wait to wait today!” Then again, Heinz and Guinness both profess: “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.” Yesterday I had a bit of an “Ah HA!” moment...

As I write this I am sitting in the backseat of a Toyota listening to the Beatles with three Slovenians who I don’t know. I am hitchhiking! The couple in the front told me their names, but I just nodded and smiled. Don, a fellow hitchhiker, is in the back with me....

This morning on a flight to London I realized the last time I flew over the Atlantic was in 1999. How things have changed! To fund that trip I worked for the Department of Environmental Protection researching and writing short “bios” for all of the waterways in south...

This week I am in Los Angeles with an outstanding group of coaches from around the world. We are here together seeing, sharing, experiencing, and learning about deepening our understanding and intensifying impact. The more meaningful our coaching is to our clients,...

While on this Grand Adventure I have met so many people that have become like family, although there have been many times where I felt very alone. In just three short months I have “seen” so much- with my eyes and with my heart. Right now I am in New Mexico and I know...

If you haven’t visited Venice Beach, California- it’s a special place. Along the Venice Boardwalk there are many street vendors and most of them are “Home Free.” Home free being what most would call “homeless.” While the residents here might not have a brick and...

There is so much talk this time of year about goals for “2018.” I used to do that too, but I had realization that there is a MUCH better way.  Read on for an entirely different, more dynamic, and prosperous view on “goals" ... and discover how a lasso relates to these...

Tomorrow, Thursday November 30th 2017, I shift into a new way of living: Life untethered, living on the road full-time in my Airstream trailer.  95% of the time I am very excited and 5% of the time I wonder what the heck I am doing. The truth is: I don’t know what I...

Your Potential… Most people consistently make decisions based on intellect. The majority of people also don’t get close to living up to their potential. Do you worry about not reaching your full potential? Maybe you are concerned about your loved ones or your team not...

Find out what people who thrive do, when they don't know what to do. Last week I facilitated an inspiring discussion with a large group of entrepreneurs about trusting your gut and developing your intuition for sustained success. People had great realizations and...

Last month we had a significant forest fire in North Port, FL that engulfed more than 4500 acres. It flared up on a blustery Saturday afternoon in the midst of a substantial drought. Forest fires are common this time of year and we are used to putting them out. There...

Often, the most valuable outcomes in life come from experiencing challenges and prevailing. Even though we inherently know challenges make us stronger, why do so many people have the tendency to quit when things get tough? What if the breakthrough was right around the...

Yourevolution- You have done it countless times. Each time is different, but also the same. Fully engaging in the process is vital to creating an amazing future.  How will you make the most of your next opportunity? The idea of the word, Yourevolution, first appeared...