When i speak of the heart i mean all of those receiving places within this 5 foot 4 inch body. I have been coming to the Sierra Nevada Mountains for 15 years and each visit I sense i know its hillsides, the walnut and chestnut trees, wild flowers, the local shepherds, and the paths that are etched in the earth which i follow with my eyes from across the steep barranco and with my feet daily. Cumulatively I have spent hundreds of days exploring these mountains on foot and still I know little. Each visit more is offered, i enter a little bit deeper. It is a landscape that inhabits my imagination. Attentive to the specifics and details: the blue shadows and sharp light, the rhythm of river, trees, birdsong, color, wind, the flight of swallows. Knowledge is about mutuality and if receptive reaches beyond intellect. Intimacy leads us to what is not divisible but to the interrelationship of all things. Kin, recognizing that i am kin with the wild goats, the small rock i hold in my palm and the mountain itself.