Looking North (prints available)

Ben Masters writes in the Introduction of Unbranded that the idea to travel 3000 miles with 3 other men and 16 just-broke mustangs across the American West, from the edge of Mexico to the border of Canada, actually started at Texas A&M University with cheap tequila and greasy enchiladas.

 Read the book though, or watch the trailer, and you'll see that it began with the seed of a more noble desire: to conserve the wild places and wild horses of the West. 

Sherrie York Sketchbook Rocky Mountain Land Library

Jeff Lee and Ann Martin, founders of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, told a reporter for The New York Times that this high mountain grassland repository filled with stories "all began with a single dream: a rural, live-in library where visitors will be able to connect with two increasingly endangered elements - the printed word and untamed nature."  

But I think it began as walks of faith through the pages of the books they love.
 

It's miraculous really, how inspiration becomes manifest, changing from vision to form, from concept to something real that we can touch and smell and see. Imagine yourself riding a wild horse, and voila! there you are, feeling the horse's rocking rhythm beneath you. 

Unbranded - the Book (available now)

Imagine the spines of thousands of books standing as upright as trees rising from high mountain grasslands, and voila! there they are, each volume wrapped around the heartwood of a story.  
 

Well, maybe not quite voila!   Read The New York Time's article, watch the Unbroken film trailer, or purchase the book or a beautiful photograph, and you'll understand the depth of determination and years of hard work required to manifest these visions.

How easy it is to give up on our dreams, to let the immense nature of the impossible journey discourage us from taking that first step, and how much faith we must have to keep our eyes on a vision no one else can yet see.  I am indebted to visionaries like Ben and Jeff and Ann for never giving up. I know they literally climbed mountains to bring us these treasures, and each time they persevered, they also brought me closer to my dreams. Thank you. 

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