Editor's Note

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

- John Muir

I fell in love with the outdoors early in life during a backpacking trip to Yosemite. I was 12 years old. Everything felt right about being there. “How have I not felt this way before?” I wondered.

Five years later, I traveled to a place called Kapakamarigi, a small tribal community in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. For one month, I spent long hot days in the jungle volunteering 6 days a week to build a two story, palm sided structure for the locals. A small price to pay I thought for being able to visit such an exotic and unknown place. I was right. The place was lush and the people were both wild and friendly. It was unlike anything I knew. Yes, the vast outdoors of this remote place rocked me, but they did not overwhelm me. That is because I was already overtaken by something else.

While serving others, I made many friends, developed a great sense of accomplishment and felt both immensely appreciated and loved by a whole community of strangers. Those feelings never left me.

I have to say, if I were to compare being in the wild outdoors to serving others, it would be a tie for me. Having researched some about the benefits of both the outdoors and serving others, it is no surprise that each provide many of the same psychological and physiological benefits. Both are known to reduce stress, lower blood pressure and decrease depression to name just a few of the many pluses of serving and being outdoors. Not to mention, both just feel good.

That is why this Memorial Day Weekend it seems so appropriate to celebrate the outdoors, our freedom and the brave during the Prescott Valley OUTDOORS Summit. So many before us have served us to keep our world safe and our country free so that we can celebrate our liberty and enjoy the immense benefits of so many things in our lives, including the great outdoors.

Join us Memorial Day weekend to celebrate freedom and remember the brave who gave it their all while serving us.

Check out: www.PrescottValleyOutdoors.com

Sincerely, Guy Roginson

Executive Editor TALKING GLASS MEDIA, LLC