Chance or Choice

 I live here by chance and choice. The chance part is that I was born in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem some decades ago ... so its plants and animals and land forms and waterways are parts of my extended family. And although I've occasionally lived in other habitats – true deserts and cities and coastal realms – the choice part is that I've always returned to this place, this "here" that keeps calling me back. It might be because of this ... the fact that the more it snows, the happier I get ... so although I'm a gloomy Scandinavian, I can count on being happy here about ten months of the year. Or it might be because I love silence, and there's lots of that here. Or it might be that I have no idea why I live here, any more than a salmon knows why it keeps heading upstream, following the molecular scent of home.
Image:

Kris Ellingsen