"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." — Angela Davis
"I am nonbinary and I feel that my gender dysphoria may be part of why I am sex-averse. I feel that there is a pro in that being asexual means that I am not distressed by any sex-aversion I experience due to my gender dysphoria." — Em Z., via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"A lot of my ace identity is inherently a part of my trans identity. Being sex-indifferent or sex-repulsed is fueled by my lack of sexual attraction and my disconnection from my body. One example is that my aversion to wearing a bikini stems from not wanting people to be sexually attracted to me, but also that it accentuates the parts of my body that I am most uncomfortable with and what I see as counter to how I view myself." — Kara T., via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"I am nonbinary/genderqueer and I feel like my gender is very tied with my ace identity. I think it took me such a long time to figure out my gender because I'm ace. I thought that I was uncomfortable looking like a girl because of how sexualized AFAB bodies are by general society." — Mattea, via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"As breasts are heavily sexualized in every form of media, I was never comfortable with my own. Even crossing my arms didn't feel right because I preferred to simply forget that they existed." — Finch, via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"Often, aromantic-spectrum women will find themselves being compelled to reject "traditional" womanhood not because they have anything against it in particular, but because they so closely associate femininity with dating and romance. In these cases, it's not necessarily about a questioning of gender at all (although that can certainly be another layer of it), but about wanting to reject the stereotypes that surround gender." — Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"Some aspecs also find themselves wanting to distance themselves from the parts of their gender or presentation that are sexualizing—or parts of their bodies that are not sexual by nature but often sexualized within the broader culture." — Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"It is in these moments of fear and discomfort that I feel most alive. Moments when I want nothing more than to be safe and warm at home – this is when I need to lean into the uncertainty of the endeavor just a little further. How is it that such an objectively dangerous and useless pursuit can give so much meaning and purpose to my life? Life is not to be preserved, it is to be lived, and there I was living it feeling the cold, the fear, the awe of the landscape, the brush of the elements." — Miles Fullman "Journey to Utgard", Alpinist Magazine, issue 93
"The landscape was a breathtaking display of ice and fire: the sweeping architecture of the peaks and the silent grandeur of the light that played over them." — Miles Fullman "Journey to Utgard", Alpinist Magazine, issue 93
"I saw a river of clouds drifting through the canyon below us, swallowing the ground and remaking it into a moving mass of shadows, curves, and drifts that was the most spectacular portrayal of beauty my eyes have had the pleasure of taking in. I started crying in disbelief. Then crying in belief. How often is it that we have the opportunity to pause and take in the moments of beauty that surround us? I had not experienced something that forced me to see my own grandeur and the beauty of it all, or to reckon with the work that I've put into arriving here. I found myself in the center of all of that, celebrating this arrival as I felt my humanity swimming through my body as I swam my way up the chimney... A pause to let yourself listen to and sing with the birds, to witness the magnificence of your surroundings, and yourself within them; a pause to allow yourself to be in awe." — Heather Smallpage "The Fluidity of Grief and Beauty", AAC Guidebook, issue XVI
"Feeling insignificant because of landscapes that humble us is familiar to me, welcomed even. I much prefer the way the land makes me feel small, compared to the way humans have that same ability." — Heather Smallpage "The Fluidity of Grief and Beauty", AAC Guidebook, issue XVI
"I found a new kind of forgetting. Crystalline moments of freedom from searching for my old self. There was no other "me." Whoever I was, whoever I used to be, didn't matter. What mattered is that I was here, on a rock in the desert where an ocean once was. A place that barely resembled its old self." — Caroline Treadway "A New Forgetting", Summit Magazine, issue 321
"We can't fail if we never give it an honest try, or whatever Yoda didn't say." — Aidan Multhauf Alpinist Magazine, Issue 87, "Twenty Classic Climbs in Twenty Days"
"He was an artist and life was his medium." — Derek Franz Alpinist Magazine, Issue 87, "Fabulous Roman Candles"
"Because nature is not a place to visit. Nature is who we are." — Ada Limón You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
"I won’t be here when the worst of what’s coming comes. I think about it and then I try not to think about it. And then I try to think because if we don’t—but I can hardly grasp it. (on climate change)" — Ellen Bass Lighthouse, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
"What do you mean the wind is not alive?
" — Traci Brimhall Mouth of the Canyon, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
"When you talk about rules, you can sound like a fuddy-duddy, but Rules are actually very creative. They are not just for rule-followers. In fact, often as soon as I make a Rule, I realize I will eventually have to—will want to— break it. It’s only a matter of time. Rules are the structure that enable us to go a little wild on a regular basis. Preferably every day." — Katie Arnold The Rules, Work in Process
"The night gradually faded and dawn turned to morning, the great peaks reassembling themselves on both sides of the valley, forming a massive corridor." — Jeff Lowe Khumbu Possibilities: Survival at the Limits of the Known, Summit Journal, Issue 321
"I really try to see [each spot I visit] with new eyes, because I don't want to become complacent just because I've lived here for so long. I want to see everything new all the time. [I want] to be always open and aware of my environment and the new things that it's telling me, or the old things that it's reminding me of." — Alexandra de Steiguer HumaNature Podcast Episode 124: The Woman of Star Island
