Contemplating Eternity

Or a love letter to my beloved Willamette Valley

All illustrations by Jason McBride

Emerson, Thoreau, and the rest of the Transcendentalists believed that when we die, our consciousness is joined with the great Univeral Oversoul. This idea was repulsive to me as a young man filled with ego and energy.

But, as I near my fifth decade roaming the surface of this planet, I now find the idea of slowly…